Can New Laws Tip Europe Into A Repair Society?

Forbes

4 days ago

New laws are coming in Europe--some as soon as June 2025-- requiring products like smart phones to household goods to be designed to repairable backed with incentives for consumers, but will they go far enough?
At a well-lit table in a church hall in the south England market town of Horsham, Simon Humphreys is testing frayed wires on a plug and cable that once powered a portable radio.
Julian Olszowka, the radio's owner, is hoping that Simon, an electrical engineer by profession, can avoid the device ending up, shredded and dumped into the waste stream.
Nearby Andrew Ramsden is peering into the back of a Krupps coffee-making machine that appears to have lost its ability to pump water.
Stephanie James, the coffee machine's owner, says it is still capable of frothing milk but can't filter coffee.
'I would have had to dump it if I had not heard about this repair café, so I thought let's give it a go,' says Ms James.
The Horsham repair café is part of Sussex Green Living, a regional southern England environmental group. It is staffed by a small group of volunteers, some of whom are experts and some of whom are applying common sense.
Andrew admits he 'knows nothing about coffee machines' but stresses for most electrical goods the principles are the same.
'Whether it is a coffee machine or a vacuum cleaner, it is normally about have you got power going to where it needs to go and are things doing what they should do,' says Mr Ramsden.
Simon reckons they can fix over half of the small electrical goods they see, but both despair at the way some goods are seemingly designed to be impossible to fix.
Simon Humphreys checks out a defunct boom box while reporter Nick Nuttall looks on at the Sussex ... More Green Living Repair Cafe in Horsham, West Sussex, England 2025
Frustration ranges from 'built in obsolescence' meaning the manufacturers design goods to fail fast and in ways that make them hard to repair, up to the Herculean efforts often needed to source a crucial part at a realistic price.
There are today some 700 Repair Cafés in the UK with more across Europe and the United States.
The backbone of the current system is committed community and green groups, a small but growing suite or repair shops and customers who feel uncomfortable with the throwaway society.
But there is also an increasing group of campaigners who feel, with the right incentives for customers and stronger rules for manufacturers, repair could play a key part in a modern economy while helping to combat climate change and create new green jobs.
The focus right now is on a new law, called the 'Right to Repair' Directive, that is set to come into force across the European Union (EU) perhaps as soon as July 2026. It is allied to what is called the Eco Design Product Sustainability Regulation.
The first is aimed at citizens, giving them more rights to get manufacturers to repair their faulty household goods while obligating governments in the EU governments to provide information or incentives for consumers to visit repair shops.
The second is aimed at companies, requiring them to design products to be more repairable, and to ensure relevant parts are available to consumers and repairers.
The new measures will apply to EU manufacturers but also to non-EU ones selling into the bloc.
It means that a country like the UK, which is also seeking to strengthen repair laws at home, or a big exporter like China, may need to mirror much of the EU legislation if they want to continue exporting.
Last year, the adoption of the 'Right to Repair' Directive marked a milestone in our push for a more sustainable and consumer-friendly Europe. This bold move reflects our commitment to a culture of repair, sustainability, and a circular economy across the European Union. It guarantees that consumers can repair their products even beyond the legal warranty, helping reduce waste and breathe new life into goods
Many campaigners agree that progress is being made. But believe there is room to expand the scope of repair.
Especially as member states (and perhaps non-EU states like the UK) move to translate the new requirements into domestic laws and plans.
Under the Right to Repair, each member state of the EU has to choose at least one action that could range from information campaigns up to financial incentives.
The Restart Project in the UK, part of a pan European network of 29 organizations under the banner Right to Repair Europe has begun trials in three London boroughs of what they believe is a key part of the jigsaw puzzle.
The pilot, funded until September by the North London Waste Authority's Community Fund, is offering citizens vouchers that give them a 50 per cent discount at shops doing repairs.
Fiona Dear of the UK Restart Project
Fiona Dear, Restart's UK Director of Strategy and Operations, says they are working with ReLondon, a circular economy initiative led by the Mayor of London and local authorities, with the aim of making repair vouchers London-wide.
But the big prize is to encourage the UK Government to make repair vouchers nationwide.
Ms Dear said:' We know from polling in 2023 that 79% of the UK public support a government repair voucher scheme. But we also know that often, national policy needs to be based on regional trials'.
Similar calls are being made in the EU where repair vouchers have been successfully piloted in the Upper Austria region.
That led to a national, now two-year-old, programme. France also has a nationwide scheme. But the Right to Repair Directive does not mandate them EU-wide.
Campaigners are also pressing for the scope of products covered under the new Directive and Eco Design rules to be significantly expanded.
Familiar white goods like washing machines and fridges are already covered and others have been added like tablets and batteries in products such as e-bikes.
France has for some years carried a repairability score on white goods like washing machines, alongside the familiar energy ratings, as a way of encouraging consumers to make better choices.
New energy efficiency plus now repairability stickers to appear on an increasing number of ... More electrical goods under the Right to Repair Directive in Europe
Under the new repair push, repairability ratings will appear on smartphones and tablets in the EU from 20 June 2025 with more goods included next year.
But campaigners want more ambition including a rating that includes not only how repairable a product is but the likely price of spare parts.
Meanwhile, they want more commitment to financial incentives for consumers, ranging from Europe-wide voucher schemes or VAT cuts for repair to perhaps lower business rates for commercial repair shops and repair cafes.
Cristina Ganapini, parts of the Right to Repair Europe which also links to 180 member organizations across 30 countries, says repair is not a nostalgic nod to the past, but has a big role to play in a modern, sustainable facing, society.
The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) says extending the lifetime of all washing machines, notebooks, vacuum cleaners and smartphones in the EU by just one year would save around 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually by 2030-- equivalent to taking over 2 million cars off the roads for a year.
This could help the EU to meet its climate targets under the Paris Agreement and other related goals.
A report by the German government's environment agency says a strong Right to Repair culture could generate around 60,000 additional jobs, many of which could be well paid in sectors such as Information and Communications Technologies, textiles, engineering, and electrical occupations
Rosalind Peters repairs damaged clothing at Sussex Green Living's Repair Cafe in Horsham, West ... More Sussex, England 2025
How far campaign groups can push the European Commission, the EU member states and the UK government to go further and faster remains to be seen.
Commissioner McGrath said the work now focused on ensuring the countries of the EU fully implement the Right to Repair Directive by July next year but did signal further steps.
'A major next step is the launch of the European Repair Platform by January 2028, designed to provide easy access to repair services across Europe. At the same time, we're pushing forward with eco-design legislation to set high repairability standards, making products longer lasting and easier to fix. These actions not only benefit consumers but also spark new opportunities and drive economic growth in the repair sector, 'he added.
Back at Sussex Green Living's Repair Café, the coffee machine fault has been linked to a small rubber device.
Given the wind in the sails of Right to Repair, Andrew and Stephanie and repairers and consumers in the EU and beyond may find sourcing such a spare part soon becomes less treasure hunt and more speedy reality.
Much will depend on the ambition of EU member states to go the extra mile, the extent to which other countries, like the UK, act and the success of campaigners on both sides of the English Channel to win new and significant practical and political gains.