Europe wants cellphones to be easier to repair

The right of reparation will be a fact in Europe after the vote in the European Parliament. This is a movement against planned obsolescence and one that will force manufacturers to say whether a device, such as a mobile phone, is easy to repair or not. In addition to mobile phones, this would apply to other electronic devices, which will have a similar view when they are released to the market.

Knowing whether a mobile is easy to repair is something that worries users as there are models in which it is not easy to perform some type of repair. With this change, manufacturers will need to indicate some kind of repairability index, so we know how easy or complex it is.

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It will be easier to know if a mobile is easy to repair

When buying a mobile many users want to know whether it is easy to repair or not, as this may indicate future additional costs to possible problems with said device. With this measure, the aim is for the user to know in advance whether said repair will be complex or not. This type of indicator will be mandatory on mobile phones or laptops, among other products.

France becomes the first country where they will make mandatory those stickers indicating ease of repair. To let the consumer know if it is easy to make a repair, a score between 0 and 10 will be used on the stickers. The higher the score, the easier the repair. So, they can even know if they can fix the problems on the phone themselves, which is not possible with all cellphones.

The European Union hopes meet various objectives with this measure. It should reduce the planned obsolescence of devices, in addition to making the buying process easier or at least transparent for consumers. They will have more information about the devices in advance, in order to better choose which one they want to buy. It also aims to reduce the production of waste which results in wastage of repairable devices.

Easy-to-repair cell phones are becoming more and more important, with examples like the Fairphone, which has already launched several generations into the market, also in Europe. This decision by the European Union may lead manufacturers to release phones that are easier to repair. Only time will tell.