The Engineered Expiration – Part 5: The Regulatory Tide: Right to Repair and the Global Push for Longevity

The Mobilization Against Engineered Failure

The profound environmental and social consequences of planned obsolescence have catalyzed significant regulatory and consumer mobilization globally, most notably through the “right to repair” movement. This movement seeks to counteract planned obsolescence by requiring manufacturers to facilitate repair-friendly design, standardize components, and provide necessary access to parts and information. Recycling advocates and repair organizations, such as The Repair Association, view Right to Repair laws as crucial tactics for diverting e-scrap from disposal and fostering new business opportunities for refurbishers.

Consumers are strongly aligned with this shift; a 2014 Eurobarometer survey showed 77% of European citizens would prefer to repair their goods rather than buying new ones. This mounting pressure has compelled governments and multinational bodies, especially the European Union, to introduce legislation that directly challenges corporate control over product lifecycles.

The Thesis of Legislative Intervention

To counter the systemic issues of planned obsolescence, global regulatory bodies and national legislatures are employing a holistic approach across consumer protection, environmental law, and competition law, aiming to ban specific unfair commercial practices and mandate product longevity through enforceable standards for repairability and software support. This regulatory framework seeks to ban durability-reducing attributes, thereby rendering early obsolescence significantly less appealing in practice, and shifting the market toward the core principles of the circular economy.

The Analytical Core: Policy Responses and Legislative Frontiers

Foundation: Punishing Planned Obsolescence

France stands out as the first and, until recently, only country to explicitly address planned obsolescence by defining, prohibiting, and penalizing it as a criminal offense. France’s Consumer Code defines the practice as the use of techniques intended to deliberately reduce a product’s lifespan to increase its replacement rate. Manufacturers found guilty can face substantial fines—up to €300,000 or 5% of average yearly turnover—and up to a two-year prison sentence.

This legal framework led to successful enforcement actions, such as the 2020 fine against Apple of €25 million for deliberately slowing down iPhones via software updates. Another significant victory was the filing of a complaint against several printer producers (e.g., HP, Canon, Brother, Epson) for using techniques like sensors to stop cartridges from working before they were truly empty. Furthermore, France mandates that appliance manufacturers inform purchasers how long spare parts will be available and must repair or replace defective products free of charge within two years, effectively creating a mandatory two-year warranty. Quebec has since followed suit, adopting Bill 29 in October 2023, which prohibits the creation or sale of items with planned obsolescence through any technique designed to reduce their normal operating life.

The Crucible of Context: EU Directives and the Circular Economy

The European Union has moved aggressively to standardize measures against planned obsolescence through its Circular Economy Action Plans. The EU aims to make consumer goods more durable, easier to repair, and to decouple economic growth from resource use. Recent EU legislation aims to tackle the issue from multiple angles:

1. The Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (ECGT) Directive (2024/825/EU): This directive bolsters consumer rights by expanding the list of prohibited unfair commercial practices. It strictly forbids promoting goods with artificially limited lifespans, such as hardware designed to fail or software designed to slow smartphone response, provided the trader is informed about the flaw. It also prohibits misleading claims about durability and withholding information about negative impacts of software updates.

2. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR): This regulation establishes a framework to set minimum requirements for product durability, repairability, and upgradability, including software. For smartphones and tablets, current Ecodesign rules specify a minimum software update duration of five years.

3. The Right to Repair Directive: This legislation mandates manufacturers to offer repair services and aims to boost the EU repair market.

EU member states are required to incorporate the ECGT Directive into national law by March 27, 2026, with non-compliance potentially leading to fines up to 4% of annual turnover in affected states.

Cascade of Effects: Right to Repair in North America

In the United States, planned obsolescence is primarily being addressed through state-level “right to repair” laws, enacted in states including California, Minnesota, New York, and Colorado. These laws generally require original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to make parts and repair instructions available to the general public.

A crucial trend in US state legislation is the call for a “repairability index” or “repair score”. Bills introduced in states like Oregon, Pennsylvania, and New York seek to mandate OEMs to rate how repairable their products are, typically on a scale of one to ten. This index aims to empower consumers to make informed purchasing choices, especially considering the scarcity of critical minerals and computer chips. Additionally, some states, like Oregon and Washington, are moving to ban the practice of “parts pairing,” which uses software to prevent technicians from fully installing spare parts not officially approved by OEMs.

The Unresolved Challenge of Software Duration

Although global legislative initiatives have established criminal penalties, banned certain unfair practices, and advanced the right to repair, a significant gap remains: the lack of a binding, EU-wide minimum duration for software support. Current EU rules rely on vague concepts like “expected lifespan” or “reasonable consumer expectation,” allowing manufacturers flexibility in ending support, as demonstrated by Microsoft’s Windows 10 decision.

The challenge ahead involves setting clear, product-specific minimum durations for software updates that match the availability of spare parts and reflect the needs of refurbishment and resale markets. By demanding transparency, mandating repairability, and holding companies financially accountable for deliberate product failure, global governance is beginning to shift the economic incentives away from destructive consumption and toward engineering products for true longevity.