r/europe • u/paneuropeanism_ Europe • Jul 31 '26
News New EU law requires devices to be repairable - Every phone, television or washing machine you buy in Europe must be easier to repair starting tomorrow. That’s when the European Right to Repair Act takes effect
https://www.nporadio1.nl/fragmenten/nos-met-het-oog-op-morgen/019fb4ba-4def-735d-a758-1ba6b55e6f79/2026-07-30-apparaten-verplicht-repareerbaar-door-nieuwe-eu-wet931
u/jack_the_beast Jul 31 '26
the fact that multiple companies (logitech, nintendo) are going through the hassle of making eu-specific versions of their products tells you exactly why this is great news for customers
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u/FcukTheTories North West England - United Kingdom Jul 31 '26
It’s also great news for the UK because they just give us the same stuff as they give the EU lol
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u/obscure_monke Munster Jul 31 '26
Now I'm imagining a switch 2 controller with a "NOT FOR EU" stamp on the back of it, like a block of cheese.
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Jul 31 '26
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u/vegark Norway Jul 31 '26
It is because there is a component in the paper plate that either makes the composting process take longer time or leaves residues that you don't want in the compost.
This is totally normal in every country that takes their waste management seriously.
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u/tas50 Jul 31 '26
It's because California actually has a standard for what compostable means and a lot of the compostable products aren't actually compostable. Anyone can make the claim in the other 49 states but in CA it has to be real.
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u/Bmandk Denmark Jul 31 '26
The Brussels Effect in action! Although just for the UK, not for the whole world
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u/-Eliass Bavaria (Germany) Jul 31 '26
Unfair
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u/FcukTheTories North West England - United Kingdom Jul 31 '26
It’s quite a good deal on our part, but on the contrary, if there is something we don’t like about it we no longer have any power to change it.
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u/mrdickfigures Jul 31 '26
It's almost like Brexit was a terrible idea. Still have to follow/are subject to EU regulations without any way to influence said regulations.
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u/FcukTheTories North West England - United Kingdom Jul 31 '26
It was a terrible idea, but being able to retain the high standards of EU products is definitely a palate cleanser.
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u/olssoneerz Sweden Jul 31 '26
It’s crazy how your reaction to good news that benefits other people too is “unfair”.
I was like that when I was 6.
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u/-Eliass Bavaria (Germany) Jul 31 '26
This guy when somebody ist joking: 😡
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u/TheMostyRoastyToasty Jul 31 '26
To be fair, a German that jokes is like a unicorn.
(This is a joke)
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u/Foxkilt France Jul 31 '26
I started to understand when things were jokes around age 7
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u/HrabiaVulpes Nobody to vote for Jul 31 '26
This shows two things:
- EU is so big of a market it's more profitable to make separate product than to abandon EU to local companies
- It's still more profitable to fuck americans over than to give them EU quality level
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u/derperofworlds1 Jul 31 '26
As an American, I'll still buy from the company that has one expensive repairable product for all over the one that has one that has an expensive repairable one for EU and a more cheaper difficult-to-repair one for the US.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
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u/IndependentMemory215 Jul 31 '26
Do you think having a new product that requires more internal access or reshuffling interior placement will save or cost a business money? That requires two production lines now.
Much more likely is the EU will see prices rise as the new redesigns are introduced, while the rest of the world will have the same price.
I’d wager companies will price extra profit into the price increases too. For greed and to capture any future requirement costs too.
What the weird focus on America. Do you think the world outside of the EU and Us doesn’t exist, or don’t also buy products?
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u/Anti-Hentai-Banzai Finland Jul 31 '26
While I 100% support this initiative, there are some products with mechanical parts that most likely will fail before the battery. E.g. computer mice, especially for gaming -- the switches WILL give in before the battery, so it doesn't help much if only the battery is user-replaceable.
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u/BogdanPradatu Jul 31 '26
Switches are already replaceable, you just need a soldering iron.
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u/iqla Jul 31 '26
Soldering is not the hard part.
It's getting the device opened without destroying parts of it. Screws should not be hidden behind glued on pads.
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u/97vyy Jul 31 '26
That tells you it's cheaper to build multiple assembly lines to build unrepairable products than it is to build one product that is repairable.
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u/IndependentMemory215 Jul 31 '26
Or multiple countries are doing it so they can charge more for EU products to cover the cost of a reading and new production lines as needed.
It’s still good for consumers, but not be better for the wallets upfront. Savings may just be long term with less replacements needed
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u/Darkone539 Jul 31 '26
This might make some things a little larger or more expensive but honestly the ability to repair stuff easier is well worth that. We were at the point where you had to throw out a big ticket item because a single sensor failed.
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u/Annachroniced The Netherlands Jul 31 '26
I have an oven with software issues and no way to update. This makes it impossible to select the oven function in about half the cases.
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u/Nazamroth Jul 31 '26
Have you tried hitting it yet?
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u/auronddraig Jul 31 '26
Yeah.
It moaned "spank me daddy!", now it's turned on to the max and can't turn it off. We even unplugged it, but it's still getting hotter.
Any other brilliant tip? I'm open to suggestions.
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u/zuzg Germany Jul 31 '26
My induction stovetop once suddenly gave me a error code and became inoperable, thing was barely 4 year old.
"oh sorry there's nothing we can do, maybe a technician can solve it" was all customer service said about it.
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u/Winjin Jul 31 '26
Aren't they usually under like a 5 year warranty?
Either way it sucks. Our fridge apparently started leaking coolant a few months ago and about two weeks ago freezer temp dipped above freezing, it became like +2C in there, and a month later the whole fridge became a slight cooler. Like all it could do was reduce the temp by 2-3 degrees.
It was about two years old and fully covered by warranty, so I had a visit and now have to wait for a new fridge as a replacement.
It's a good thing neighbors donated their old fridge to us, other way we'd have to buy another one.
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u/Darkone539 Jul 31 '26
I had never considered an oven could have a software issue like this. What. The. Hell.
That's actually awful.
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u/10thDeadlySin Jul 31 '26
Why are you surprised?
Pretty much everything has been running on microcontrollers and SoCs for years at this point. Your dishwasher, your stove, your RGB mechanical keyboard - it's highly likely that they all have some sort of a MCU running some kind of a firmware.
Every once in a while storage will get corrupted or the MCU will fail and you end up with issues.
The problem is... people don't know how to repair stuff and 'repair technicians' are glorified module swappers these days. I can replace the EEPROM or the microcontroller, but without the original dump or official firmware you're out of luck anyway, because it won't run without its software. Good luck getting the manufacturer to send it to you - it's proprietary, trade secret or whatever, so your best bet is finding an identical part and just dumping it. But when you're at this stage, you might as well just swap the new part in and enjoy a working stove.
And that's the fun part - I can take pretty much any hardware from the 60s or the 70s and fix it - as long as it doesn't have some unobtanium parts. There are official schematics available for plenty of old stuff, sometimes they were even included in the manual.
I am physically able to replace chips and components on modern hardware as well, but I can't fix a good chunk of hardware - schematics are secret, so I need to reverse-engineer stuff, firmware is impossible to get, spares are either not available or found only in China (thanks to EU for killing that avenue with the new 3€ tariff, much appreciated!) - as a result, your best bet is often finding a broken thing for parts and just swapping whatever you need.
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u/Scortas Jul 31 '26
Because of this I recommend always researching repairability and most common culprits when buying any tech and home appliances. I recommend checking into iFixIt into future. Corps will only care if we as customers demand quality, not cheap "new" digital software.
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u/pinkfatcap Greece Jul 31 '26
I know and this outrages me, because I bought an ultra thin TV and I don't watch TV at all, I just stand at the side and stare how thin it is.
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u/StandardHyena4587 Jul 31 '26
You still will, because just like they did in the USA when passed a law like this, they just priced the sensor the same price as a new one.
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Jul 31 '26
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u/SzaraMateria Europe Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
this regulation won't fix this unfortunately. Law makers allowed for parts to be sold in packages. So good luck finding separate drum bearings in producer parts store.
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u/LightModel Jul 31 '26
How is that relevant to this law at all? You think this law will mean your repairman has to charge less for a new drum?
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u/TheoremaEgregium Österreich Jul 31 '26
Can't wait for reddit to explain to me why this is actually a horrible thing.
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u/mattiasso Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Wait until the Americans notice that the EU gave the evil customers yet another right against the kind and caring multi-billion profits corporations (which would never ever think about planned obsolescence)
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u/Ok-Foundation-4070 Jul 31 '26
Imagine they force consumers to use their precious brain cells think about repairing their products. Atrocious.
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u/mattiasso Jul 31 '26
Your imagination makes me wanna puke... Don't they think about the earning calls??
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u/hates_stupid_people Jul 31 '26
But I might be rich some day, so don't hurt my fantasy of screwing people over!
-brainwashed idiots
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u/CaffeinatedGeriatric Jul 31 '26
Queue Trump the Rump giving a speech to seize Germany and control European manufacturing. "It's going to be the biggliest merger in the history of mergers, my son will take it over to make the products in American quality instead of German. I know about German, he's a very bad hombre, and his wife looks like a dog."
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u/SpacePumpkie Region of Murcia (Spain) Jul 31 '26
Hey, Germán is my buddy and he is a nice and caring husband and father!
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u/Upset-Award1206 Sweden Jul 31 '26
"haha europoors, so cheap they have to repair their stuff when it breaks instead of buying new" - russian bot
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u/CocaColaZeroEnjoyer 🇵🇱 Aug 01 '26
Unfortunately a lot of people unironically think like that. I never understood why for some people throwing away stuff just because is a flex
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u/gookman European Union Jul 31 '26
I'm pretty sure most Americans would love to have this...
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u/mattiasso Jul 31 '26
I'm pretty sure whenever somebody in America speaks of taking a little bit from the rich or companies to give it to the remaining 99% of the population, there's a revolt and calls of communism
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u/fuckyou_m8 Jul 31 '26
Many of companies selling those items are not even American anymore, they are all Chinese or European
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u/Fridelis Jul 31 '26
Because you are hurting poor companies! They do not have enough billions in revenue; how will they survive and make the money trickle down to their employees? Also, the EU has no freedom and is ruining everything, etc etc.
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u/Rapa2626 Jul 31 '26
It depends how its implemented- if my next devices waterproof rating goes down just for easier to remove battery that only needs to be done once in 2 or 3 years when i can remove it already- that would suck.
But if they remove all the bs hardware locks that prevent you from replacing a perfectly working battery with another one like in apple devices- that is great.
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u/Annachroniced The Netherlands Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Or to explain why it cant possibly work. Because they can think of 10 reasons why it wont, that the EU after years of research and consulting with businesses and experts obviously didnt account for. Despite it all being very easy to look-up.
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u/Suikerspin_Ei The Netherlands Jul 31 '26
Also often when EU changes rules/laws for products, other countries benefit from it too. EU market is huge to ignore for the big international companies. Probably cheaper to change their product lines world wide than only specific for the countries in the EU.
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u/hypoglycemic_hippo Czech Republic Jul 31 '26
If you read the law, it's very clear why it won't work - the law is already designed to not work. Paid for by the corporations I would presume.
The law allows (some of) the spare parts to be bundled. The bearings (a 20EUR part) on your washing machine have gone bad? Too bad, we only sell the bearings as a bundle with the drum and it costs 450EUR.
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u/Annachroniced The Netherlands Jul 31 '26
Well luckily the EU laws come with targeted goals and reporting demands. So if the measure doesnt reach the goal because of loopholes they will adjust the law accordingly.
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u/Falith Jul 31 '26
It's not great, because they still allow for assembled pieces that are way too expensive to justify a repair compared to buying new. Like a washing machine, the bearing is the most likely component to fail, but you cant get it as a loose part, so you need a whole motor-drum assembly which is 90% of the price of the washing machine + labour.
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u/santorfo Jul 31 '26
Malicious compliance happens every time a new rule/law is introduced
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Jul 31 '26
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u/TheFlamingCucumber Jul 31 '26
The horrible migrants! Homicide rate in europoor countries reached 1,8% /1000 (while American standard is 8-10% for long while)
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u/Party-Cake5173 Croatia 🇭🇷 Jul 31 '26
The people on r/Apple are insane. EU gifted them ability to charge their devices everywhere with any charger, they complained how this is terrible and stiffs innovation (repeating what Apple said). When I told them Apple already uses USB-C on all of their devices, they somehow believe Lightning -> USB-C cable is better than USB-C -> USB-C, then I gave up.
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u/heubergen1 Jul 31 '26
It makes it more difficult to design certain devices and what if I want to choose design over function? Apple started that way for a reason.
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u/deceased_parrot Croatia Jul 31 '26
No such thing as a free lunch: maybe it makes manufacture more expensive, or the product bulkier or something else had to be sacrificed.
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but "being repairable" still won't make parts or specialized labor more available.
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u/Turkooo Jul 31 '26
I don't know why it would be horrible, but what stop any company to price their components two or three times higher than the actual product you want to repair and thus make this whole thing useless?
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u/OrangeHer Lithuania Jul 31 '26
how much are the multi billion companies going to complain about this?
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u/hypoglycemic_hippo Czech Republic Jul 31 '26
They won't. They already lobbied hard to ruin this law for the consumers.
The law allows the spare parts to be bundled. The bearings (a 20EUR part) on your washing machine have gone bad? Too bad, we only sell the bearings as a bundle with the drum and it costs 450EUR.
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u/gahlo United States of America Jul 31 '26
"Hmm, I wonder if somebody has the parts I need from the bundle on ebay."
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u/throwawayforstuffed Aug 01 '26
Good luck selling the drum for anything over 200€ when you buy the bundle for the bearings, it's by design so that repairs are more expensive and hassle to put you in the spot of "fuck it, I'll get a new one"
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u/mattiasso Jul 31 '26
I bet Google and Apple are already telling trump how evil we are
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u/Cunning-bid Jul 31 '26
They will gatekeep the parts and sell them for insane prices. Kinda like the printer business.
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u/Adorable-Extent3667 Jul 31 '26
Very good. Let's see what the prices do, but it'll still be worth it for me as I like to use things for a long time.
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u/Emergency-Minute4846 Jul 31 '26
The EU is the only organisation that actually makes life better for consumers…
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u/GergDanger Jul 31 '26
Just don’t ask for privacy on the internet
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u/Efficient-Drop5051 Jul 31 '26
Noooooooo. Bro, would someone please, PLEASE think of the poor shareholders? 😢
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u/user38835 Jul 31 '26
Louis Rossman already made a video about this. Manufacturers can sell combination parts which costs as much as buying a new appliance.
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u/Lerriot Jul 31 '26
Good news, but do not confuse an EU deadline with finished implementation.
As today (national transposition deadline), only four countries currently show notified national measures: Lithuania (7), Finland (4), Croatia (2) and Slovakia (1).
The EU is still made up of states. A directive does not instantly become the same enforceable law everywhere. Each country still has to transpose it properly, so there is plenty of work left on delays, loopholes and enforcement.
Status: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/NIM/?uri=oj%3AL_202401799
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u/quixotichance Jul 31 '26
My dishwasher still works but the drawers started to rust so need to be replaced. Eur200 to replace 2 drawers, or eur 400 to throw it all out and get a new dishwasher.
They'll have to address cost and availability of spare parts as part of this, otherwise repair though possible will continue to not make sense
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u/West_Possible_7969 Spain Jul 31 '26
Deterrent spare parts pricing is specifically banned, with fair cost calculation regarding acceptable profit / labour costs and with mandatory cost transparency which have to be published.
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u/TheLantean Romania Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Bosch already worked around this for their washing machines by gluing together the entire tumbler assembly. Need some 2€ ball bearings or the spider (metal arms that hold the inner tumbler)? Well, because whole assembly is now one single part you need to essentially re-buy half of the washing machine (plus labor) which altogether amounts to 80% of the cost of a new unit. Bosch, never again. My replacement is an LG.
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u/West_Possible_7969 Spain Jul 31 '26
Re-commenting my comment from another thread, it applies to glued assemblies by whatever means too:
For the ultrasonic welded drums specifically there are multiple legal battles at the moment, along with groups pushing Commission to issue guidance for either a price cap or ban the practice altogether because it can be considered both unreasonable to pay €500 for a €20 issue like a bearing, but also it can be considered a hardware barrier designed to block repair, and that is forbidden.
That would be sorted from this day on because you cannot sue a manufacturer beforehand or before they present / publish their version of compliance.
Also member states themselves are lobbying for the next generation of Ecodesign regulations to explicitly mandate fastener-based assemblies (screws and bolts). If passed, this would completely outlaw ultrasonic welding and gluing of appliance tubs.
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u/MagnificentCat Jul 31 '26
What exactly does it mean? Replaceable batteries? How can I repair my TV as a complete idiot? - genuine question!
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u/Suzume_Chikahisa Portugal Jul 31 '26
Above all it means they can't engineer things in a way that prevents repairs like irreplaceable/inaccesseable batteries.
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u/DrSoarbeLacrimi Jul 31 '26
you dont, you take it to a repair shop and they'll should be able to repair it. thats what this means.
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u/papayamaki Jul 31 '26
Or you watch a youtube video and do it yourself
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u/Yesbabelon Jul 31 '26
Exactly. From personal experience fixing plenty of consumer electronics for friends and family free of charge, most people don't want to put the time and/or effort in to repairing things for themselves, they instead look at the cost of someone else doing it (which includes the cost of labour) and weigh that against replacing the product.
Had to tell a friend not to chuck away his £180 headphones the other day just because the ear pads were ripped and falling apart. The replacement pads are about £15 and take 5 minutes to swap.
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u/Dotcaprachiappa Italy Jul 31 '26
And importantly not only a company certified repair shop, any shop should be able to do it.
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u/Shmullus_Jones Jul 31 '26
Purely a guess but I'm guessing that it means they have to make it accessible to repair (so no panels glued together that you can't get into etc), and also have to make it possible to get the spare parts to repair it with. They will probably start offering some extra warranty where they send someone to fix it for you, or maybe there will be a return of the "repairman" who can fix a bunch of things.
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u/Just1n_Kees Europe Jul 31 '26
Doesn’t mean you personally should be able to repair, but the local repair shop around the corner for example. Those shops that fix a broken screen or whatever.
The idea is it needs to be repairable by any person skilled enough to disassemble and reassemble a machine, not just the OEM.
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u/Opposite2 Jul 31 '26
Oh they actually proposed something to the people's interest. Weird..
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u/Magnum_Gonada Romania Jul 31 '26
"Propose something good to placate them after the digital surveillance thing"
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u/PipsiSpite Jul 31 '26
All the people not realizing Apple, Samsung, Google have been given exemptions by lobbying not to have to include replaceable batteries. IP ratings currently provide exemptions to phone makers even though we all know you can create a phone with an IP rating with a replaceable battery.
It’s a step in the right direction, we need more.
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u/StrangerConscious637 Jul 31 '26
Europe... carrying for consumer rights.
USA.... carrying for billionairs.
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u/Flaky-Jim United Kingdom Jul 31 '26
Good. The built-in redundancy of major consumer goods has been made worse by not being able to repair or easily replace what were simple parts.
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u/The_Paragone Jul 31 '26
Does that mean in the future we will be able to change our phone batteries and such without having to unglue the back piece?
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u/Korll Jul 31 '26
The EU does a horrible job and PRing this info to the citizens. This is great news.
Now make the list longer!
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u/mhhhpfff Jul 31 '26
drum assembly for a 600€ washing machine is almost 500€ and they don't have to sell you the bearings that probably break as a part. So still not close to working as intended
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u/katonda Jul 31 '26
Beyond that, I'd hope that the law requires easy access to spare parts by 3rd parties, so we don't get locked into manufacturer-only repair -- because then they can say it's technically repairable but the cost is so high that it doesn't matter.
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u/ampsuu Estonia Jul 31 '26
Mmm yeah. I just got a reply from a robotic mower company that they dont provide parts for independent workshop and every mower needs to be sent in to another country which usually takes month to two.
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u/TheBlockChainVillage Jul 31 '26
Would this affect global supply chains also?
You can't have separate iPhone productions for Europe and Asian markets right? The variation in production would eat into profits
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u/SolemnaceProcurement Mazovia (Poland) Jul 31 '26
Nintendo already decided to go separate way for EU. So for bigger appliances almost certainly they would manfacture separate products.
For shit like Iphone it's also quite likely.
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u/hughk European Union Jul 31 '26
Nope this won't happen except to devices subject to type approval after the deadline. So something bought tomorrow won't magically include it but over time, more and more devices will have to be compliant. Same as with USB-C power and so on.
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u/fungussa United Kingdom Jul 31 '26
This could have quite profound benefit for obviously not only consumers, but also non-renewable resource usage and carbon emissions.
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u/HideoKojimaAmStart Jul 31 '26
Take this, all the people whining about bottle caps. The EU is actually pretty awesome.
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u/Slimfictiv Jul 31 '26
We got to a point that we need to pass laws for this kind of... common sense things...
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u/Mr_Foxer Jul 31 '26
Does this allow for the so-called "breaking of digital locks" in cases where the device is unusable because the remote servers have been shut down?
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u/-Captain-Iglo- Jul 31 '26
Wow this is yet again a very important thing, yes maybe not perfect but a giant leap!
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u/StaticSystemShock Jul 31 '26
I don't think this will address bearings in washing machines and how annoying and difficult they are to replace now that everyone switched to plastic drum tubs... Lifting entire drum/tub/motor assembly out of chassis is so fucking painful...
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u/solongehhbowser Jul 31 '26
Im really waiting untill the first high-end smartphones will adjust to this in the EU. Would love to have a phone like a Galaxy Ultra to keep for many years, and just replace the battery when neccessary
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u/beroore Jul 31 '26
That's when they begin to sell replacement parts for more than the new product.
My plastic freezer box broke and I had to pay 100€ for a new replacement. Not really new freezer price but still ridiculous.
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u/no1_vern Jul 31 '26
This should have been the standard for products sold to consumers from the very beginning as should the right to repair products consumers buy be.
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u/bleki_one Poland Jul 31 '26
And manufacturers will use every trick available to get around this law unfortunately.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mFeXZNScWxI
But it is a good start and with time I hope practices like the one discussed in this vide will be banned.
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u/Igor369 Europe Jul 31 '26
Phones with non glued back covers will make me nut my pants... glad I did not buy a new phone yet.
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u/slim121212 Jul 31 '26
very good, although they are pretty repairable already, atleast oven, dishwasher and washing machines, i fixed my washer machine twice, just replaced the heating element in it, but if they have to make it easier then that is perfect.
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u/Championship-Stock Jul 31 '26
Really? An LG microwave broke and I need the fuse to be replaced by LG ( they made it so independent services can’t reach it).They said to throw it away and get a new one if it cost less than 500 euro to buy it originally.. so what law?
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u/Troggot Aug 01 '26
I love to repair my things. I watch uncountable hours of repair videos and repair almost everything at home.
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u/UpperRearer Sweden Aug 01 '26
Concern trolling by totally real people insisting it's totally not possible, while gleefully looking the other way on blatant malicious compliance, in 3, 2, -
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u/paneuropeanism_ Europe Jul 31 '26
The products covered by the obligation to repair currently include: