The EU is focused on right to repair and has voted overwhelmingly in support of a resolution on a “sustainable single market”. The European Parliament has approved the commissions original proposal, and the next step is for the commission to “develop and introduce mandatory labelling, to provide clear, immediately visible and easy-to-understand information to consumers on the estimated lifetime and reparability of a product at the time of purchase.”
The resolution also focuses on increased availability of repair instructions and spare parts for independent repair shops and individual consumers.
Here’s more evidence around how the EU is going to lead on regulation – and let’s be frank, the US will be pulled along. If you’re a company like Apple or Samsung, is there advantage to creating a different product per region to stop this? That is likely outweighed by the inefficiency to your supply chain.
And thus, the EU will open up right to repair capabilities first, and they will be practically available, although unless the US also enacts laws to require the same access, American businesses may be locked out of a capability that the large companies will have but choose not to make available.
From my vantage point, service providers care in the US to not be left behind… on something that is already proving popular with customers. Just look to that vote in Massachusetts.
Source: The Verge