Photo credit: germanium from Eichwalde, Germany — 1970 Marshall JMP 1968 Super P.A. 100W - Phase splitter and power supply stage, care of CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In an earlier article entitled “EU / UK Right to Repair laws being drafted”, we talked about plans to introduce RIGHT TO REPAIR regulations in the UK and EU. Here we give our opinion(s) on the expected effect on the production, selling, usage and maintenance of electrical appliances and electronic gadgets.

Current electrical appliances and electronic gadgets are sold with a certain amount of “Planned Obsolescence” in mind. The justification of the manufacturers of these products is that a durable product (like say, a washing machine) has an expected useful life, after which continued usage will become more and more impractical — due to inefficiency, poor performance, difficulty of maintenance (possibly due to lack of parts or trained maintainers); and overall wear and tear.

What does product maintenance entail?
In order to properly maintain these products, manufacturers need to ensure that an efficient and functional support ecosystem exists for ALL products requiring maintenance. This implies having trained personnel with access to required parts and subsystems available, at convenient locations.

As an example, for car manufacturers — like in the case of TOYOTA — warranties can span several years, as indicated (for example) in the Toyota 2019 C-HR Warranty & Maintenance Guide.

What is the implication here? So if Toyota stops producing the C-HR come 2022, it will need to ensure its capability to support the C-HR Engine Control modules and Catalytic converter and protectors until 2030, at the very least — as these are covered by its 8/80 warranty (which covers these parts for 8 years or 80,000 miles, whichever comes first).

So in the case of gadgets and appliances, once a manufacturer decides to stop producing the gadget or appliance model after a certain number of years, it will need to be sure that it will have the capability to continue servicing these items for a specific period of time.

In the case of electronic gadgets, this becomes a little more complicated — as product support and maintenance may extend to the operating system and/or software the devices need in order to operate. For example, whenever software security patches are released to the market for APPLE (IOS) or other (ANDROID) cellphones, the releasing firm needs to consider the compatibility of the released software with the existing pool of devices that will be using the updated software.

Once these regulations come into play and are fully enforced, you can expect manufacturers to be obligated to explicitly define what will be covered by their warranties / guaranties. This will definitely fold into the sales process, and increased maintainability may become a unique selling point for some manufacturers.

At the end of the day, all of these maintenance and support requirements result in an added cost — which is ultimately shouldered by the customer.

What about our rights?

In the United States, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act lists down pertinent regulations regarding warranties, to ensure that stated warranties are fair for consumers. In the EU, it seems like there is a blanket minimum 2-year guarantee for protection against faulty goods, or goods that don't look or work as advertised. In some EU countries, their national law(s) may require manufacturers to provide longer guarantees.

A press release by the EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT discusses the rationale behind the Ecodesign directive and other Right-to-Repair regulations.

Some articles, like this one on EURONEWS.COM and THEIET.ORG go on to say that the EU will require manufacturers to ensure that various appliances (like refrigerators, TVs and washers) will be repairable for up to 10 years, but we have not seen the specific EU directive stating this at the moment. We will update this article once we find the specific EU document stating this.

For more information on the EU Ecodesign Directive (which discusses many items pertinent to this topic and then some), you can read the Ecodesign Directive (2009/125/EC) European Implementation Assessment PDF.

While there is a need to balance the burden on the manufacturer to maintain phased-out products with consumer needs (and desires) for product maintainability over a lengthy period of time — ultimately, governments cannot force manufacturers to support a product for many years after they have stopped producing it.

Having said that, manufacturers that (either consciously or inadvertently) design and sell a product that is difficult to service or maintain — like making it difficult to replace or repair parts that degrade or break down through normal use (e.g. batteries / switches / bearings) — are doing a major disservice to the customer.

One example that comes to mind is having to replace an airconditioner compressor due to a faulty motor bearing. In many cases, the compressor system and assembly is still fully functional and has several years of potential use ahead — but sadly (and irritatingly), the entire compressor system will have to be removed and replaced, due to the inability to remove and replace the faulty motor bearing.

Making appliances and gadgets difficult to repair may cause premature disposal of the problematic device, and will thus contribute to the ever growing e-waste environmental problem. The burden of designing and making appliances and gadgets easier to maintain and repair falls on the manufacturer, and the burden of ensuring that consumer rights (regarding device warranties and pertinent repair rights) AND environmental regulations are upheld falls on the government.

Expected benefits of Increased Device and Appliance Repairability
Making devices and appliances easy to maintain will ultimately result in savings for the consumer, a reduction in resources used over time (in the form of raw materials used to produce replacements, as well as transporting and storing these replacement products), and an overall smaller environmental footprint / impact over time.

As consumers, we will always have the right to choose which products and services we purchase. If increased maintainability ends up being a defining customer requirement, you can be sure that manfuacturers will take pertinent actions to address these demands.

What about the manufacturer’s rights?

The manufacturer has the right to specify the product warranty and guarantee terms — as long as they comply with regulations in the area(s) the product is officially sold. Now whether the defined warranty / guarantee is acceptable to the consumer will eventually be decided by market forces.

Some manufacturers will be in a better position to provide desirable warranties and guarantees. Some manufacturers, however, may not be able to provide adequate warranties and guarantees — especially for consumers and markets that are outside their core target market (e.g. areas where they do not have much presence).

In many cases, manufacturers (have the right to) transfer the burden of maintenance and support to their suppliers — the OEM providers. In this way, the device manufacturer does not have to worry about product support (that much), while the subsystem or part OEM firm has the potential to generate additional revenue down the line.

What’s up ahead?

It will be interesting to see how manufacturers comply with these new RIGHT TO REPAIR regulations — as it may involve significant product design changes, as well as major changes in operational concerns like expected profits, product support requirements, spare parts inventory and service provider selection; among others.

For manufacturers with a robust consumer repair and support ecosystem already in place, compliance will not be a problem. Otherwise, we expect compliance to be a significant challenge for manufacturers that will have to redesign their products and build up a support ecosystem at the same time.

Governments will also have their hands full once these regulations come into play. If implemented in a heavy-handed manner, the imposition of these regulations may result in significant losses for manufacturers, possibly leading to a pullout from specific markets that the manufacturers deem not worth the effort of supporting. If severe enough, this would ultimately be to the detriment of the consuming public.

One of the key government metrics of success for this initiative would be the bottom-line impact of these regulations on reducing the amount of e-waste generated every year.

Finally, how consumers react to their increased rights to repair would either vindicate the establishment of these regulations, or would just highlight the disconnect between perceived versus actual consumer needs and wants.

Conclusion

The right to repair movement is a step in the right direction, in our opinion. It will help lengthen the life of durable appliances and devices, while minimizing their environmental impacts over time. This will also provide direct and tangible savings to the consumers of these devices and products.

However — if we were providing advice to the body formulating and implementing these regulations — we would recommend that there be a basic requirement that all manufacturers will need to comply with (e.g. 2 years guarantee against faulty goods); and then provide compelling incentives for organizations that go beyond this basic requirement (e.g. 5 years guarantee against faulty goods), to sweeten the deal and incentivize extended guarantees; to the benefit of all parties involved.

Related links on RIGHT TO REPAIR

Steve WOZNIAK chimes in on Right to Repair — Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder, shares his views on the Right-to-Repair movement in a very interesting Youtube video.
EU / UK Right to Repair laws being drafted — Right to repair laws for appliances and electronic gadgets are being drafted in the UK and EU.