European Refurbishment Association
EUREFAS
EUREFAS aims at representing the EU refurbished smartphone market at a larger scale by bringing together companies of all shapes and sizes, from every corner of Europe.
ID: 332404341982-26
Lobbying Activity
Response to Circular Economy Act
6 Nov 2025
EUREFAS (the European Refurbishment Association) welcomes the proposed Circular Economy Act as a way to stimulate demand for secondary materials and harmonize a single market for waste. However, it warns that the CEA overlooks a core pillar of circularity: product lifetime extension through reuse or repair of electrical and electronic equipment. A recycling-only focus will not deliver competitiveness, strategic autonomy, or environmental outcomes. Promoting reuse is particularly key to improve e-waste collection and recycling, as take-back schemes for reuse are much more attractive for consumers than just giving used devices for recycling. Furthermore, refurbishment facilities are already skilled at channeling non-reusable products to the appropriate specialized recyclers. EUREFAS stresses that the EU refurbishment sector is at an inflection point: sales are growing, but margins are thin due to repairability and legal barriers, costly original spare parts, labor costs, and double taxation issues. To make reuse a competitive sector and a true enabler of the Circular Economy Acts objectives, EUREFAS proposes four areas of recommendations. First, the CEA should build on Recommendation (EU) 2023/2585 by designing collection schemes that systematically maximise both reuse and then recycling. Every device collected should be assessed for reusability by a qualified professional to assess reusability before any recycling decision, with logistics contracts explicitly safeguarding reuse potential through proper packaging, transport, and storage until refurbishment. To unlock returns at scale, economic incentives should reward the handback of both functional and nonfunctional small electronics, while public and private organisations should default to returning used devices to refurbishers. Second, product repairability requirements must advance further by ensuring legal coherence and broader scope. The Right to Repairs directive core reparability provisions should be integrated into the Ecodesign framework and extended to more categories, such as laptops. Critical reparability gaps for smartphones, tablets, and laptops should be closed by mandating longterm security updates; ensuring easy removability of parts and banning unnecessary bundling; and prohibiting part pairing and recognising compatible parts that meet equivalent technical and safety standards. Then, to create a true Single Market for secondhand goods, the CEA should go hand in hand with the revision of the New Legislative Framework to clarify compliance for refurbished products and define refurbishment as distinct from manufacturing and remanufacturing. Waste framework should ensure a used product is not deemed waste unless truly beyond repair and not taken up by a reuse actor. EPR should be streamlined via an EU OSSlike platform for declarations and data sharing, with secondhand products excluded from EPR fees if it has been already paid when previously sold in the EU, and copyright levies should exclude secondhand to avoid double taxation, fragmentation, administrative burdens, and price inflation that undermines reuse. Finally, policy tools and EPR governance must be recalibrated to enable competitive EU reuse sectors. Current models place excessive responsibility on PROs while refurbishers remain outside EPR governance, and manufacturers are not best placed to provide independent and adequate support for reuse competitors. Reuse targets should be set separately from recycling, and applied to Member States, not PROs, so that non EPR levers such as tax policy, legal frameworks, training and innovation are mobilised and coordinated. EPR Governance should grant reuse actors codecision power alongside producers on strategic, financial, and operational matters affecting reuse; and at least 30% of PRO revenues should be dedicated to reuse development. For further details and a fuller explanation of our recommendations, please refer to the attached position paper.
Read full responseResponse to Revision of the 'New Legislative Framework'
1 Sept 2025
EUREFAS, the European Refurbishment Association, welcomes the Commissions comprehensive revision of the New Legislative Framework (NLF) to ensure legal clarity, consistent EU rule application, and unlock refurbishments full potential.We strongly support the NLF revision objectives: integrating digital tools (notably the Digital Product Passport), reducing regulatory burdens and addressing gaps affecting circular actors. Existing conformity assessment rules are ill-suited to the role of refurbishment operators.Clarifying the scope of the NLF and updating definitions and obligations of economic actors is essential to create legal certainty.In this context, EUREFAS supports a comprehensive legislative revision (option 3) to: 1. Distinguish refurbishment from manufacturing and remanufacturing Refurbishment is a distinct, standalone process occurring later in a products value chain. Unlike manufacturing, it does not create new products. Unlike remanufacturing, it does not substantially modify or enhance a product beyond its original condition.Refurbishment involves testing and, if needed, repairing a used product to restore its original functionality, without changing its intended purpose or core characteristics. It may include maintenance or cosmetic improvements but remains limited in scope compared to remanufacturing, which involves extensive upgrades or full overhauls. The ESPR framework recognises refurbishment as a separate category due to these differences. Liability for refurbishers should therefore be limited to the components they modify, while responsibility for original defects remains with the manufacturer. EUREFAS advocates a harmonised definition of refurbishment in EU product legislation to ensure legal clarity and proportionate obligations. A dedicated regulatory framework is essential to extend product lifecycles and support circular economy goals. 2. Establish a dedicated legal regime for second-hand operators EUREFAS supports creating a legal status for professionals engaged in reuse/refurbishment. This is key to recognising their role in the value chain and ensuring fair responsibility distribution. Legal obligations must be proportionate to the level of intervention. For example, refurbishers should not be required to carry out full conformity assessments or bear full legal responsibility, as they only make limited modifications. Refurbishers can reasonably be held accountable for: compliance with information requirements if the data is publicly available; components or spare parts they replace; second-hand-specific requirements, if adapted to reused products. They do not influence product design or software and often lack access to technical documentation. Legal obligations must reflect this across all EU product legislation. 3. Improve Traceability to Support Enforcement and Circularity Traceability, especially access to product history, is a challenge for refurbishment, as each product arrives in a unique condition requiring specific servicing. The DPP can support enforcement and circularity if it serves refurbishers' needs. Refurbishers should be recognised as target users of the DPP and granted access to relevant data, with the ability to update it and ensure continuous traceability.The DPP should include key information: technical documentation, conformity records, repair instructions, and pre-ownership details. Manufacturers should be required to record this data consistently and make it accessible throughout the products lifecycle. This would enable safer repairs, better diagnostics, high-quality reused products while ensuring compliance. EUREFAS calls for an ambitious NLF revision that establishes a dedicated legal regime for refurbishers and clarifies their responsibilities. A clear, balanced, and future-proof framework will ensure legal certainty, avoid diluted responsibilities, and allow the refurbishment sector to fully contribute to EU circularity and product safety.
Read full responseResponse to Commission Implementing Regulation on the list for the purposes of Article 26 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1252
25 Jul 2025
EUREFAS, the European Refurbishment Association, welcomes the Commissions initiative and strongly supports the objectives of the Critical Raw material Act Regulation 2024/1252. EUREFAS particularly endorses the recognition of the materials listed in Annex I as having high strategic potential in contributing to the EU's critical raw material (hereafter CRM) policies as outlined in Article 1 of the Regulation. As the association representing the refurbishment sector and being a key player in the circular economy by extending devices lifespan containing a majority of the materials listed in Annex I, EUREFAS would like to underline the importance of prioritizing reuse over recycling. To this day, reuse stands as the most effective and resource-efficient method to valorize those materials : While recycling aims to recover CRM from end-of-life products and waste streams, reuse already retains these materials in functional or reusable devices, avoiding the energy-intensive and resource-consuming process of extraction through recycling. In addition, through reuse, such as refurbishment, every device resold into the market reduces the need to manufacture a new product, thereby mitigating the demand for new raw material extraction and further recovery processes. Refurbishment, which consists of testing, the maintenance or the repair of a second-hand device by a professional, plays a key role in reducing the demand for CRM and is therefore not a competitor to recycling but its logical precursor. A recycling-first approach that sidelines or deprioritizes reuse risks undermining the overall objectives of the CRM Act. CRM policies must recognize the upstream value of used products and components already in circulation to prevent the premature dismantling of reusable devices leading to unnecessary loss of critical raw materials. Before valorizing materials through extraction, EUREFAS calls for the valorization of the product as a whole through the following measures : - Improve collection objectives and specific targets for reuse, distinguishing reuse from recycling in reporting obligations. - Mandate sorting and prioritization for reuse in collection schemes, ensuring that every device suitable for reuse does not automatically end in recycling streams. - Support the development and promotion of buy-back programs, enabling the retrieval of high-value devices and components suitable for reuse. These measures will strengthen the refurbishment sectors capacity to retain CRM by collecting and refurbishing more devices, extending their lifespan and consequently reducing waste generation and ultimately contributing to enhancing supply security. An effective CRM policy should thus be complementary to European and national policies promoting reuse first, followed by component salvaging and recycling only when reuse is no longer viable. EUREFAS therefore encourages the Commission to recognize the role of reuse within CRM policymaking and to ensure that regulatory frameworks prioritize reuse.
Read full responseResponse to EU label on product durability and EU notice on consumers’ legal guarantee rights
23 Jul 2025
EUREFAS welcomes the Commissions initiative to develop a new visual identity (ie. the guarantee notice and label) aimed at enhancing consumer awareness to support sustainable consumption and purchasing. As a sector we are dedicated to building consumer trust in refurbished products and we believe the availability of transparent, harmonised guarantee information is essential to empower consumers to make informed, responsible choices, especially in the growing market for second-life electronics. However, we wish to underline an important concern: the increasing complexity of pre-contractual information obligations risks having the opposite effect. For example, with the entry into force of energy and repair labels for smartphones and tablets in June 2025, consumers and businesses are already adapting to new labelling formats. Introducing another full-scale label at the point of sale, especially one containing detailed text, will result in information overload, be burdensome to administer, and risk confusing rather than informing consumers. To address this, we encourage the Commission to explore a simplified guarantee symbol like a clear, recognisable visual indicator that a product benefits from a legal or commercial durability guarantee. The symbol could be accompanied by a number indicating the duration of guarantee coverage and come in different colors depending on whether it is the legal protection (blue) or the durability guarantee (green). To maximise the impact of such symbol, it is essential to pair its rollout with consumer education efforts. Without clear communication, even a simplified symbol risks being misunderstood or overlooked. An EU-wide awareness campaign explaining the label's meaning, its role in supporting more durable products, and how it differs from other labelling schemes would help ensure that consumers recognise and trust this indicator, ultimately reinforcing its effectiveness in guiding sustainable purchasing decisions. This approach would promote clarity and visibility and be easier to implement across physical and digital retail environments. Such a symbol could be linked (via QR code or digital display) to additional details when needed, without overwhelming the consumer at the point of choice. We thank the Commission for its efforts and remain available to contribute further on behalf of Europes refurbishment industry.
Read full responseResponse to Sustainable products - disclosure of information on unsold consumer products
9 Jul 2025
EUREFAS - the European Refurbishment Association - welcomes the opportunity to provide high level comments on the draft Act. Our association gathers actors of the refurbishment sector interested in ensuring long-term sustainability of the consumer electronics industry by allowing devices to get multiple use lives. The core of our business model and industry lies with access to supply of electric or electronic devices that have not yet become waste.However, this supply from the EU remains largely insufficient due to factors beyond our control, including the lack of appropriate collection schemes, consumers reluctance to return their devices, manufacturers policies to send collected products directly to recycling, and the premature destruction of unsold or returned goods. Yet, the preventive measures listed in Annex 1 currently do not take account of activities such as refurbishment. Preparing for reuse - from the waste hierarchy - is a concept that only refers to products or components that have become waste (per Article 3 point 16 of the Waste Framework Directive). This does not reflect the reality of our sector, which primarily works with products that are not yet waste. We therefore recommend that the Regulation should incentivise traders to avoid the destruction of unsold goods, particularly if they havent yet reached the status of waste. We strongly support the extension of the scope of the ban on the destruction of unsold goods to more product categories, including consumer electronics such as mobile phones, smartphones, laptops and computers. We would like to see refurbishment recognised as a standalone activity, ranked higher than preparation for reuse and recycling in order to unlock access to untapped sources of supply. This would be one clear incentive for traders to turn to refurbishers to handle their goods instead of sending them to recycling or destruction, and contribute to the objectives of the circular economy. Finally, we stress that not all products deemed unsafe necessarily need to be destroyed. Many can be safely refurbished or used as sources of spare parts, thereby supporting both product safety and circularity. We stand ready to support the European Commission in designing pragmatic approaches that avoid unjustified destruction while upholding consumer protection.
Read full responseResponse to Single Market Strategy 2025
31 Jan 2025
EUREFAS brings together environmentally-focused stakeholders in high-tech and electronics refurbishment across Europe. It aims to support the development of a comprehensive European market for repair and refurbished goods, share expertise with public authorities and policymakers, and promote environmentally friendly and socially beneficial products by raising consumer awareness. Refurbishment Sector Overview: Refurbished products, which are second-hand items collected, tested, and if needed repaired by professionals, are gaining traction in the EU. For instance, refurbished smartphones account for over 20% of sales in France and 10% in Germany. This sector is set to play a significant role in the future economy by offering sustainable, high-quality products at lower prices with reduced carbon footprints. It also presents opportunities for reindustrialisation, local job creation, strategic autonomy by reclaiming value from outsourced tech manufacturing, and reduced reliance on global raw materials. The European refurbishment and second-hand markets face development barriers due to current Single market rules, which are tailored for new products. They do not provide a secure legal framework for professionals dealing with used products. - Refurbishers cant comply with any classic economic operator rules as they lack access to initial product documentation and relationships with original manufacturers or the previous consumer, complicating compliance with distributor or trader obligations; - Refurbishment is not clearly defined, and definition of substantial modification does not exclude refurbishment, which poses the risk to consider refurbishers as manufacturers; - Second-hand products also cannot meet new product requirements due to wear and tear, outdated design regulations, and limited initial product information. EUREFAS proposed solution: - We call for a clear, cross-legislative definition of refurbishment, excluding it from substantial modification processes, which should be considered as remanufacturing. - A specific legal regime for second-hand economic operators is needed, clarifying their liability and responsibilities. Refurbishers should be accountable for providing only publicly available product information, EU requirements on spare parts they have replaced, and eventually specific second-hand or refurbishment product requirements that could be set. They should not be considered manufacturers or liable for previous operators' practices. Simplifying Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): EUREFAS advocates for a one-stop-shop EPR system to streamline registration and reporting across Member States, reducing administrative burdens, especially for SMEs. This system would allow a product to pay its EPR fee once, even if refurbished and sold multiple times within the Internal Market, fostering the reuse market's growth.
Read full responseMeeting with Lucie Rousselle (Cabinet of Commissioner Didier Reynders)
29 Jan 2024 · Backmarket: discussion on the proposal on promoting the repair of goods, currently in trilogues.
Meeting with René Repasi (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)
13 Dec 2023 · Exchange of Views on the Right to Repair/ Recht auf Reparatur (R2R)
Response to Promoting sustainability in consumer after-sales
25 May 2023
EUREFAS, the European refurbishment association, expresses appreciation for the European Commission's proposal for a Directive to promote the repair of goods. While acknowledging the importance of a consumer framework, EUREFAS emphasizes that it must be complemented by ecodesign legislation that prioritizes repair and reuse. The attached position paper provides detailed comments on the proposal, urging legislators to consider the following key points: 1. Achieving a universal "consumer right to repair": Legislation should ensure that devices are designed and manufactured with repairability in mind. Consumers should have the right to choose professional repair services at fair and affordable prices, regardless of warranty limits. Practices that impede repair or compromise device quality and user experience should be effectively prohibited. 2. Obligation to repair over replacement: Repair should be prioritized over replacement within warranty limits, with exceptions for cases where repair is impractical or excessively costly. For refurbished devices, repair can often be impossible or prohibitively expensive, and access to affordable parts is crucial. Consumers should not be discouraged by unaffordable repairs outside of warranty limits. 3. Online platform: National platforms connecting consumers with repairers and sellers of refurbished goods are welcomed. Distributors of new devices should be mandated to inform consumers about the platform's existence and benefits. Such platforms should be established at the European level, or at least limited common criteria should be agreed upon to ensure equivalent quality and facilitate consumer access to repair services. 4. Voluntary European quality standard for repair services: EUREFAS supports the development of a voluntary European quality standard that enhances consumer trust. The standard should be open and based on non-discriminatory criteria, accommodating the needs of SMEs in the repair industry. 5. Obligation to repair for second-hand economic operators: The obligation to repair for producers should exclude refurbishers when they place second-hand products on the market, as they are unable to provide access to spare parts. EUREFAS emphasizes the need for both consumer rights and ecodesign requirements to foster a circular economy. Consumers should be aware that they can access quality and affordable repairs from trusted professionals, which will contribute to increased interest in refurbished products, job creation, and European competitiveness.
Read full responseResponse to Ecodesign for Sustainable Products - Product priorities
12 May 2023
EUREFAS - the European refurbishment association - welcomes the European Commissions work on building a strong Ecodesign for Sustainable Products framework to make products sold in the EU subject to performance and information-related requirements, and ensure greater sustainability. As product prioritization will be critical to the success of this initiative, we are thankful the Commission seeks views on the categories of products and measures to address first and happy to provide our expertise. Even though we understand this consultation focuses on identifying new products that are not currently within the scope of Ecodesign Directive, and that the Commission will carry out a separate initiative to prioritize requirements for energy-related products, we consider this is an opportunity to emphasise how important ICT and electronics are, and that they need to be at the top of the agenda of the coming working plan. In particular, improving durability and repairability of products covered by former working plans, and adding new electronics to the Commission working plan, is critical. On smartphones for example, the Commission should revise the upcoming regulation under new ESPR rules in order to add new criteria to what has been done already. For example regarding carbon footprint, third party spare parts authorisation in repair, or extension of lifespan through longer provision of software updates. Other mass market electronics, such as computers, game consoles or audio products, which have a strong environmental impact and are highly disposable, also need to be added to the working plan. EUREFAS is at the Commissions disposal to discuss the energy-related products agenda, participate in the Ecodesign forum and make recommendations on much needed priorities.
Read full responseResponse to Initiative on EU taxonomy - environmental objective
3 May 2023
EUREFAS, the European Refurbishment Association, welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the Taxonomy Regulation. As the association representing the refurbishment industry in Europe, our goal is to promote a circular economy and help build a greener world. By giving waste or second-hand products a new life, our members are already implementing a circular economic model. They are thereby directly contributing to our transition to a circular economy. Therefore, we will focus our feedback on this aspect of the Taxonomy. Our comments are thus referring to Annex II, section 5.1. Repair, refurbishment and remanufacturing, section 5.2. Sale of spare parts, section 5.4. Sale of second-hand goods, section 5.6. Marketplace for the trade of second-hand goods for reuse, as well as section 2.3. Collection and transport of non-hazardous and hazardous waste. Please find our detailed comments and proposals in the attached document. In the name of all 18 member organisations, we thank you for taking our proposals into consideration. The Taxonomy is a great opportunity to ensure that we meet our environmental objectives and transform our economy into a circular model. We need to ensure to make the best of it. EUREFAS stands ready to engage further on this very important topic.
Read full responseMeeting with Helena Braun (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans)
13 Dec 2022 · Implementation of EU Circular Economy Action Plan and the challenges and opportunities for refurbishment sector
Response to Environmental impact of mobile phones and tablets - Ecodesign
28 Sept 2022
EUREFAS - the European Refurbishment Association welcomes the proposal of ecodesign requirements for mobile phones, cordless phones and slate tablets setting up ambitious principles of durability, reusability and reparability at the design and manufacturing stages.
The text will be a powerful tool for improving those products’ circularity and environmental footprint, by:
• Defining professional repairers in a way covering both repair services and refurbishment to solve the common challenge they face regarding reparability;
• Aiming at opening the after sales market by making much needed spare parts and repair and maintenance information available, at a proportionate price and within decent delivery delays,
• Requiring transparency on spare parts pricing, which is critical to ending existing discriminatory practices,
• Improving design for easier disassembly and better reliability,
• Mandating software maintenance durability, which together with hardware, is the pillar for extending the lifespan of electronics.
However, we would like to raise some concerns about the negative impact of some key provisions for repair and refurbishment, which, contrary to its spirit, strongly risk hampering the text’s circularity ambitions. Please see our detailed comments in the attached document.
For the sake of readability of the attached document:
• Eurefas' comments refer to the Smartphones section of Annex 1 & 2, but they also apply to the other products addressed.
• As Eurefas is the European refurbishers association, we only address provisions impacting professional repairers, and not end users.
• A modified version of the regulation, including our suggestions, is attached to this paper as an annex
Read full responseResponse to Sustainable Products Initiative
21 Jun 2022
EUREFAS - the European Refurbishment Association welcomes the proposal of Ecodesign for Sustainable Products setting up ambitious principles of durability, reusability and reparability at the design and manufacturing stages, in order to implement the green transition. New sustainable products are however not the sole solution in this view : Second-hand and refurbished products have appeared as a remedy to limit the need for new products. EUREFAS welcomes the fact that this emerging market and its new economic operators such as refurbishers are now acknowledged.
However, EUREFAS would like to raise some concerns about how refurbishment is addressed in the regulation : EUREFAS welcomes the express reference to refurbishment, differentiated from other specific actors such as remanufacturers or producers. However, the proposed definition does not, in our view, reflect our reality. We are especially concerned about the proposed wording of “modifying” that can lead refurbishers to meet manufacturers obligations as per Article 28, which they are not able to, especially due to lack of information on the manufacturing stage.
To that end, the following amendment to the definition better fits our reality : “Refurbishment means the testing and, if needed, the maintenance or repair of a second hand good or waste by a professional, before making it available on the market. Refurbishment may also include improving the aesthetics of the good.”
Different from manufacturing and remanufacturing (where repair is necessary), refurbishment is a standalone process, limited to the testing of functionalities to ensure the device is a fully functional product. Maintenance and repair can occur as defined in article 2 (19) and article 2 (20) only if needed, but their activity never modifies a good or affects its functionalities or purpose conceived at the designing stage. If aesthetic appearance can indeed be improved, the product is never brought back to mint condition. Thus, the “upgrading” definition as in Article 2 (17) should be limited to functionality, performance and capacity to avoid misconception.
On the scope of refurbishment, we would also like the “unsold consumer products” (Article 2 (37)) that are often discarded, to be allowed to be sold as refurbished products in order to maximise the amount of reused products.
In addition to the risk of being considered a manufacturer, the proposed regulation is problematic as it does not address the specific situation of refurbishers as importers or distributors in the view of obligations set out in Articles 4, 21, 23 and 24 : To this day, refurbishers are not in capacity to meet these requirements, mainly due to a lack of access to all the documentation related to the manufacturing stage of a product such as performance and compliance, in addition with individual previous owner’s use depriving full traceability. With this in mind, the regulation should endorse refurbishments’ specific situation, by providing a realistic definition of their activity and an express exemption from the requirements attached to manufacturers, importers and distributors legal regimes.
EUREFAS would also like to highlight the potential of a digital product passport, as traceability is a core challenge for refurbishers : To this day, second-hand professionals suffer from a lack of information on the product as mentioned above, in addition to the different owners’ uses, which prevents them from easily repairing products. A product passport holds many benefits for refurbishment if it sets ambitious obligations on manufacturers to provide all necessary information and for each economic actor along the value chain to inform each activity made on the product.
With such a tool, refurbishers would be able to easily diagnose in which condition the product comes and how to properly service it before selling it back. To do so, refurbishers should be expressly included as stakeholders for whom the passport is intended.
Read full responseResponse to Empowering the consumer for the green transition
27 May 2022
Eurefas - the European refurbishment association - welcomes this initiative which ensures consumers will have more reliable information on product’s reparability, durability and the way it is promoted. To further accelerate the reuse of products - through refurbishment for example - and put them back into the circular economy loop, we suggest adding “reusability'' to the list of the product’s main characteristics (in Article 1.2.a) in respect to which a trader’s practice can be considered misleading. Indeed, having more reliable information on how a product can be reused is beneficial for consumers as they will be able to resell it more easily.
However, we feel the proposal does not appropriately address the specificities of the second-hand market and some provisions could be strengthened in order to be more precise and binding. We outline below key recommendations to ensure that the initiative delivers on its promises.
Precontractual repair information should include when possible information to help in the diagnosis of a faulty appliance, such as repair manuals, information on repair tools and, the period of availability of spare parts in order to truly reflect a product’s reparability (cf article 2.2.j). We also believe some of the newly added unfair commercial practices (UCP) should be more precise otherwise they will be easily circumvented:
- The new UCP 23e of the Annex 1 should specify that “the existence of a feature of a good introduced to limit its durability” refers to the use of techniques, including software, by which the manufacturer aims to reduce a product’s lifespan.
- The new UCP 23d of the Annex 1 should apply to any software update regardless of whether or not they are necessary to keep the good in conformity. We also believe the legislation should list as a UCP the omission to inform whether or not a software update is necessary to keep the product in conformity.”
We welcome the Commission's attempt to bring more transparency to consumers on design choices limiting repairability and durability through the creation of new UCPs (Annex 1; (4)). However, to legitimise an ambitious right to repair, we cannot rely solely on prohibiting the lack of information on such design choices. We need to put a stop to those practices in the first place by preventing manufacturers from limiting the right to repair (through software locks or other methods) at the design and manufacturing stages. Consumer legislation can only provide a safeguard in ensuring a right to repair and an availability of product’s information, echoing strong principles entrenched in product legislation (such as ESPR and product specific legislation).
To ensure that the provisions are enforceable, all required product information shall be passed on through the ownership chain, especially from manufacturers to (re)Sellers of second-hand goods, who do not have the same access to information as original manufacturers, especially if the device has been traded privately between consumers before reaching a professional seller. Not only should we request every good to have a product passport where all information could be stored and updated along the product lifetime, we should make it mandatory for manufacturers to make all product information requested in this text public, and frequently updated.
It is essential that legislation is adapted to the specificities of the second-hand market and its actors, in particular for refurbishers, who only test or repair a used product if necessary. Since we have no relationship to manufacturers, we cannot be held liable for commercial practices linked to the way the product is designed (refer to new UCPs 23d, 23e, 23f, 23g and 23i of Annex 1).
In order to ensure that these provisions are binding and properly enforced, we call for introducing minimum thresholds for penalties at the EU level.
Read full response