The European Commission is advocating new rules for mobile phone and tablet repairability.
Draft proposals published this week(Opens in a new window) would require manufacturers to make at least 15 components available to professional repairers for up to five years after releasing a new phone in the European Union (EU). That means customers would get guaranteed access to replacement batteries, back covers, front- and rear-facing cameras, audio connectors, charging ports, microphones and speakers, SIM and memory card trays, and more.
Extending the life cycle of a smartphone or tablet by just five years is roughly equivalent to removing 5 million cars from the road, according to the Financial Times(Opens in a new window). That’s a tough ask for consumers, though, when electronics makers are releasing newer, shinier handsets each year.
“The steep increase in the demand for smartphones and tablets, combined [with] their increased functionality, has resulted in increased demand for energy and materials needed to manufacture these devices on the EU market, accompanied by an increase in their associated environmental impacts,” Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen wrote in the proposal. “In addition, devices are often replaced prematurely by users and are, at the end of their useful life, not sufficiently reused or recycled, leading to a waste of resources.”
If adopted, the initiative would also usher in a new energy label for phones and tablets—similar to the ones already in place across Europe for TVs and large household items. The labels would indicate an expected battery life, and include details on water and dust protection, and rate the device’s resistance to drops and scratches.
Those manufacturers, meanwhile, that can’t (or won’t) supply batteries for five years must instead meet a set of battery endurance tests that certify devices achieve 80% of a rated capacity after 1,000 full-charge cycles. They’ll also need to ensure software updates never negatively impact battery life.
While the draft proposals aim to make handsets more energy-efficient and durable, easier to repair, and possible to reuse and recycle, some folks don’t think they go far enough. The Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS)—an international NGO advocating for environmentally friendly tech standards, policies, and laws—called the move(Opens in a new window) “generally encouraging,” but said the proposals “should still be significantly improved.”
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The Commission’s five-year timeline for providing spare parts and software updates isn’t long enough, ECOS said, noting that it doesn’t apply at all to tech with flexible displays. “As a result, such devices might become the norm for manufacturers willing to ignore the design requirements imposed by the EU.”
“The repair index and the new energy label will be game changers,” ECOS program manager Mathieu Rama said in a statement. “Let’s just make sure that we tie up all the loose ends—consumers deserve both repairability and reliability, which should go hand in hand.”
The “right to repair” movement has picked up steam in recent years, with manufacturers like Google and Samsung partnering with iFixit to sell replacement parts. Even Apple got in on the action this year with its own (pricey) self-service repair shop.
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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/news/eu-wants-smartphones-tablets-to-be-repairable-for-at-least-5-years