New steps have been taken this week to make it easier and more accessible for customers in Europe to have their purchased products repaired and refurbished rather than being forced to buy new.
It’s been a busy week for sustainability developments within the European Commission and while attention has been focused on its new Directive for Green Claims, so too has a new set of rules promoting the right to repair of consumer goods been launched.
Supporting the objectives of the European Green Deal by reducing waste, the new proposal sets out to reverse the common practice that has prioritised replacement of products over repair whenever defects have arisen.
Decades previous have seen far too few and insufficient incentives given to customers to repair their goods when the legal guarantee expires. The new proposal aims to switch this narrative while boosting the repair economy and incentivising producers and sellers to develop more sustainable business models.
A new ‘right to repair’ for consumers, both within and beyond the legal guarantee will now be introduced to ensure that consumers ‘always have someone to turn to when they opt to repair their products’. It will see the launch of an online matchmaking repair platform that will connect customers with repairers and sellers of refurbished goods in their area. This platform will enable searches by location and quality standards, helping customers find accessible offers and boosting visibility for repairers.
Furthermore, a European quality standard for repair services will be developed to help consumers identify repairers who commit to a higher quality. This ‘easy repair’ standard will be open to all repairers across the EU willing to commit to minimum quality standards.
The move has been made following a recent survey indicating that 77% of Europeans feel a personal responsibility to act to limit climate change. Discarded products are often viable goods that can be repaired but are too often thrown away prematurely. This has historically resulted in 35 million tons of waste, 30 million tons of resources and 261 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU every year.
Furthermore, the loss for customers of opting for replacement over repair is estimated at almost 12 billion per year, while the initiative is estimated to bring €4.8 billion in growth and investment in the EU.
The ‘right to repair’ proposal was announced in the New Consumer Agenda and the Circular Economy Action Plan, part of the European Commission’s broader goal of becoming the first climate neutral continent by 2050.
The initiative complements other instruments that pursue the European Green Deal objective, including the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products regulation which promotes the repairability of products in the production phase, and the proposal for a Directive on Empowering consumers for the green transition, which enables customers to make informed purchasing decisions at the point of sale.
Informed decision over consumer purchasing was highlighted by this week’s IPCC report as a core element in driving down greenhouse gas emission from our addiction to overconsumption of goods and products.
Frans Timmermans, executive vice president for the European Green Deal, said: “Repair is key to ending the model of ‘take, make, break, and throw away’ that is so harmful to our planet, our health, and our economy.
“There’s no reason why a faulty cord or broken ventilator should force you to buy an entirely new product. Last year, we proposed rules to ensure products are designed to be repairable. This week, we propose to make actually repairing things the easy and attractive option for consumers.”
