EU Right To Repair: Sellers Will Be Liable For a Year After Products Are Fixed (arstechnica.com) 55
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Europe's right-to-repair rules will force vendors to stand by their products an extra 12 months after a repair is made, according to the terms of a new political agreement. Consumers will have a choice between repair and replacement of defective products during a liability period that sellers will be required to offer. The liability period is slated to be a minimum of two years before any extensions. "If the consumer chooses the repair of the good, the seller's liability period will be extended by 12 months from the moment when the product is brought into conformity. This period may be further prolonged by member states if they so wish," a European Council announcement on Friday said.
The 12-month extension is part of a provisional deal between the European Parliament and Council on how to implement the European Commission's right-to-repair directive that was passed in March 2023. The Parliament and Council still need to formally adopt the agreement, which would then come into force 20 days after it is published in the Official Journal of the European Union. "Once adopted, the new rules will introduce a new 'right to repair' for consumers, both within and beyond the legal guarantee, which will make it easier and more cost-effective for them to repair products instead of simply replacing them with new ones," the European Commission said on Friday.
The rules require spare parts to be available at reasonable prices, and product makers will be prohibited from using "contractual, hardware or software related barriers to repair, such as impeding the use of second-hand, compatible and 3D-printed spare parts by independent repairers," the Commission said. The newly agreed-upon text "requires manufacturers to make the necessary repairs within a reasonable time and, unless the service is provided for free, for a reasonable price too, so that consumers are encouraged to opt for repair," the European Council said. There will be required options for consumers to get repairs both before and after the minimum liability period expires, the Commission said [...].
The 12-month extension is part of a provisional deal between the European Parliament and Council on how to implement the European Commission's right-to-repair directive that was passed in March 2023. The Parliament and Council still need to formally adopt the agreement, which would then come into force 20 days after it is published in the Official Journal of the European Union. "Once adopted, the new rules will introduce a new 'right to repair' for consumers, both within and beyond the legal guarantee, which will make it easier and more cost-effective for them to repair products instead of simply replacing them with new ones," the European Commission said on Friday.
The rules require spare parts to be available at reasonable prices, and product makers will be prohibited from using "contractual, hardware or software related barriers to repair, such as impeding the use of second-hand, compatible and 3D-printed spare parts by independent repairers," the Commission said. The newly agreed-upon text "requires manufacturers to make the necessary repairs within a reasonable time and, unless the service is provided for free, for a reasonable price too, so that consumers are encouraged to opt for repair," the European Council said. There will be required options for consumers to get repairs both before and after the minimum liability period expires, the Commission said [...].
Wait, Wut? (Score:2)
Are they saying that the OEM must Warrant $RANDOM Repairs for a Year?!?
BTW, second time for Frist BBC Prost today!
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BBC was an autocorrect insertion, sorry!
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Really?
in all the MILF videos I've seen where BBCs are inserted, nobody said sorry! :-)
Truly, genuinely LOL!!!
Re: Wait, Wut? (Score:2)
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Do you warrant that repair for a year?
Sure!
Well, no. (Score:3)
The article isn't very long, but it appears that this is for repairs that the seller is required to provide during the liability period. And when the repair is complete, the liability period is extended 12 months.
So, assuming you buy a product on Jan 1, 2025, it will have at least two years of "liability period". If you then get it repaired by the seller July 1, 2026, your product (now in "compliance") carries a new liability end date of July 1, 2027.
It's a bit opaque on details, but the implication seems t
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The article isn't very long, but it appears that this is for repairs that the seller is required to provide during the liability period. And when the repair is complete, the liability period is extended 12 months.
So, assuming you buy a product on Jan 1, 2025, it will have at least two years of "liability period". If you then get it repaired by the seller July 1, 2026, your product (now in "compliance") carries a new liability end date of July 1, 2027.
It's a bit opaque on details, but the implication seems to be that the seller "could" opt to use 3d printed parts or such, but since they're on the hook for another year, it's in their best interest to use parts most likely to not come back as failures.
It does not appear that the seller or manufacturer is on the hook for any repairs they did not do themselves.
I would hope not.
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That's basically it. There is a legal minimum warranty of two years on most items, but it can be longer. Some member states go even further.
During the warranty period, if it breaks and it wasn't due to misuse (som including breaking due to poor quality or durability), they have to fix it for free, and promptly.
With this new rule, they also have to warranty the repair for a year. Previously, the repair was only covered for the remainder of the legal minimum warranty.
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but who is the seller for this lemon law? (Score:2)
but who is the seller for this lemon law?
And any defective can = you can get an new car for free or at no loss of value?
What about stuff made overseas and sold in the EU
Is the distributor on the hook for the warranty?
Will the distributor need to go out of pocket for an buy back on an defective and discontinued products?
What about amazon vs amazon marketplace?
Car dealer will be on the hook for this?
Tesla will be forced to give out new batteries at good prices / let use your own repaired batteries with no loc
Re:but who is the seller for this lemon law? (Score:5, Informative)
I had the same question, so i dug for a bit of the legalses
The linked bill in the article: ‘seller’ means a seller as defined in Article 2, point (3) of Directive (EU) 2019/771;
Which is here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/... [europa.eu]
‘seller’ means any natural person or any legal person, irrespective of whether privately or publicly owned, that is acting, including through any other person acting in that natural or legal person's name or on that person's behalf, for purposes relating to that person's trade, business, craft or profession, in relation to contracts covered by this Directive;
So to answer your question i don't know [youtube.com]
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So basically the manufacturer, or the manufacturer's approved repair centres.
So nothing is really different other than the fact that when a repair is done under warranty, and the product is back in "compliance", the warranty clock starts on at least one more year, even if your product was one day short of being out of warranty when you got it fixed.
The bit about 3d printed parts is nuanced. What it means is that the repairer (having been blessed to perform the warranties) can choose to use parts that are "u
no you are not forced to use only authorized shops (Score:2)
no you are not forced to use only authorized shops and they can't lock out the device if you use 3rd party parts.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/... [thedrive.com]
Do you want pay $700 or $16K and not even get the old part to sell on your own to recoup costs. Is that what you want to be locked into dealer / authorized only shops?
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If it's outside of the warranty period, you can do whatever you like. But the 12 month of "new" warranty is not something the manufacturer is bound to. Nor can you just have anybody fix it during the warranty period.
Re: no you are not forced to use only authorized s (Score:2)
Re: but who is the seller for this lemon law? (Score:2)
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The seller is whoever you bought it from. It already works that way for the warranty - if I buy a Samsung fridge from Amazon, Amazon is the seller and is responsible for the warranty.
If they can't fix it, yes you get a refund or a new car. Well, maybe not new, if your old one was a year old, they could offer you a year old one with similar mileage.
And yes, if they can't fix it because it's obsolete or the manufacturer is gone, the seller is on the hook. They would be wise to stock products from reliable man
Re: but who is the seller for this lemon law? (Score:2)
Re:but who is the seller for this lemon law? (Score:4, Insightful)
Notice that the warranty part is mostly extending what Europe already have
right now, personal goods (business to end user) have a minimum 2 years of warranty, this just enforce that after repair, the device still gets one extra year of warranty (in the past, that warranty was just for the replaced part, not anything else). business to business have 1 year warranty minimum
This will make manufactures to avoid programed failures to 2 years ( like right now, to force users to buy new when the old old fails), as it will bite them in the ass when they have to repair twice or more a device that fails before the 2 years. Sure, they can do that for 3 years, but still a risk and every time they improve something, the device will last longer and allow easier repair
As for who will cover the warranty, it is the seller, so the guy that gets the money. As seller have the cost, they will choose distributors and manufacturers that will give them better warranty and repair conditions, not just the race to the bottom of price. Even if they use insurances to cover this, brands that have higher quality will have a lower cost than brands that are known to be die fast (see the Samsung TV cases)
So while in the US, apple give 1 year free warranty (that is, not a extra insurance you have to pay), in Europe, it gives 2 years of free warranty. The cost isn't higher because of this, usually it is higher because of taxes (VAT mostly)
What helps cheap, low quality Chinese products is that they are cheap and useless enough that people do not complain... but if they buyers did request their legal warranty, this kind of products would have died already
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And any defective can = you can get an new car for free or at no loss of value?
No, you're not entitled to a new one. You're entitled to a defect free one and it's up to the seller to make that happen.
What about stuff made overseas and sold in the EU
It's actually quite hard to sell things in the EU without a distribution office in the EU. The overwhelming majority of things sold in the EU which aren't ordered of aliexpress are covered under this law.
Will the distributor need to go out of pocket for an buy back on an defective and discontinued products?
Only if that is what it takes. They did after all sell something with a certain expectation of performance. Incidentally such a law already exists in several other countries. If the selle
TANSTAAFL (Score:1)
Expect prices on post-2024 products to be higher as this new "warranty cost" is baked into pricing.
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Paying slightly more for something that doesn't break immediately after the warranty is up? How terrible.
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I don't see it that way. If the OEM fixes the device, they should warrant the repaired device for the repairs made for a suitable duration afterward, a year works. If you break a screen and Apple fixes your iPhone then your screen should be covered for another year, because it's new. The rest of the device should be subject to any outstanding warranty.
If a third party fixes your iPhone screen, likewise they should warrant the repair for a year and Apple should still warrant the rest of the iPhone for the re
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I suppose we could make an exemption, for example instead the product could have a label in huge font "WARNING this product is a fragile piece of shit". But then it is doubtful enough people would want to buy it for stores to bother stocking it, so it wouldn't really make much difference.
Good job (Score:2)
Seems like another poorly written EU law. I appreciate the intent, I guess, but unfortunately the easiest way for a manufacturer to handle this is just to make the products even cheaper, and increase prices. They'll now have to assume the consumer is purchasing two units instead of one. Good job.
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Can you explain your reasoning? I don’t understand how making something cheaper and therefore more failure prone be of any benefit? They still have to repair and honor the warranty.
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I believe the reasoning is that the customer will buy one and wind up getting one free for some repair sometime in the mandatory 2 years, so in order to maintain profit margins they have to essentially price it to cover two devices, either by increasing the price or reducing the manufacturing cost per device.
Re:Good job (Score:4, Insightful)
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Also means I might be ordering more stuff from Europe. 2 years seems a good number for most small things, if it lasts that long chances are it will last longer...
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you clearly are complaining just by complaining, your sentence make no sense.
If they make the product cheaper, it may fail more and they have to replace it by their cost, from free to the end user. so each time a product fails, it stealing their profit. So instead of using a 1 chip, that if fails will cost them 60€ to repair, they can use a 1.5 chip that last longer and have no repair. using a 0.5 chip will not help them, even if they could find a cheaper than 1 chip (they are already trying to find th
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I guess, but unfortunately the easiest way for a manufacturer to handle this is just to make the products even cheaper, and increase prices.
It is far cheaper to make something properly than make something twice. Your post makes no sense what so ever.
Re: Good job (Score:2)
Any definitions of how a device should be? (Score:2)
If you have a Raspberry Pi, the board specifically, then 'repair' is unlikely, since it's all one piece. I suppose you might get lucky and be dealing with some surface mount components, but broadly speaking that would generally be considered one "part".
So the interest would be likely failure points and are they isolated adequately? For a smartphone for example, you'd ideally want:
-A display that is interchangeable independent of the main board
-A casing thtat can be removed and replaced without resorting t
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I would think "right to repair" would have the goal of reducing waste by maximizing the chance at keeping an older device viable. So if the user is having his entire device chucked and replaced for warranty versus chucked to buy a replacement, well, it's good for consumer at least but still the same amount of waste to process.
Good luck with that, EU... (Score:1)
Good luck with that, EU. All they need to do is force devices to activate, and any hardware change will cause a deactivation. When the device is first used, have a clause in the EULA stating that device activation can be withheld for any reason, just like how Valve can ban anyone with a VAC ban, and no amount of lawyers will reinstate it.
From there, if a device is taken apart by someone other than an auhorized reseller, it is bricked until activated.
Trivial to get around this, and Apple leads the way. Th
John deer can not use the DMCA to stop 3rd repair (Score:2)
John deer can not use the DMCA to stop 3rd repair.
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That's the point of the US DMCA: Shove some software in a sub-assembly and no-one can make an off-brand replacement. Breaking that law is a "prove your innocence" crime, meaning the seller needs no evidence to declare someone a criminal.
DMCA.com is a business that protects online publishers (images, web-pages, e-books) around the world.
The reason third-party repair is unavailable is, John Deere refuses to sell parts to third-parties. The local mechanic can't get the parts, can't fix the tractor, so t
EULA can not do that in the EU and full bac change (Score:2)
EULA can not do that in the EU and full back change + fines can really add up.
How many cars that are they forced to buy back at full price for blocking 3rd party parts / repairs will it take for them to stop banning them?
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a EULA can't bypass a law. If the this law says that parts can be replaced without any hardware or software barriers (see the article), they can't block it after the repair.
Basically this will ban what apple is doing, by controlling the serial numbers of each part and brick the phone if any change without the proper firmware update by apple.
I'm sure that apple will try their best to workaround this, but then the law will be updated, they are really just buying time until they too will be forced to have a re
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All they need to do is force devices to activate, and any hardware change will cause a deactivation. When the device is first used, have a clause in the EULA stating that device activation can be withheld for any reason, just like how Valve can ban anyone with a VAC ban, and no amount of lawyers will reinstate it.
You do realise an EULA can't absolve you from your requirement to follow the law right? EULAs do not work like that.
Re: Good luck with that, EU... (Score:2)
Indefinite Warranty (Score:2)
I can see a lot of products "breaking" every 11 months, creating an indefinite warranty.
Another stupid fucking law, courtesy of the EU.
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No one is required to repair your "broken" device. Just an actual defective one. Warranty covers manufacturer defects, not the user doing wilful damage.
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Yeah. It ain't hard to make it look "natural".
This sucks (Score:2)
I'm from Hungary (which is in the EU) and we always had this rule, but for the whole original span. If the product came with 2 years, then it restarted after the repair. Now we only get 1 year?!