More countries or states are introducing regulations requiring the offering of spare parts for electronic devices for several years after their premiere. This is the result of frequent equipment failures shortly after the warranty period, which cannot or is not profitable to repair due to lack of parts.
California wants 7 years of spare parts availability. The bill is in its final stages
Now California is trying to introduce legislation to regulate this issue. The state authorities have prepared a law that obliges manufacturers to offer spare parts for electronic equipment for 7 years from the date of release. Thanks to this, customers will be able to repair their devices (instead of throwing them away) even several years after the warranty expires.
The law will cover all electronic devices costing $100 or more. Different requirements apply to equipment cheaper than $100. For devices priced between $50 and $99.99, replacement parts will have to be available for three years, and for the cheapest electronics costing less than $50, the regulations will not impose such a requirement. The act will apply to all devices manufactured and sold after July 1, 2021, i.e. already two years old.
California is not the first state to regulate this issue, as right-to-repair regulations already exist in Minnesota and New York, but they assume a shorter “lifetime” of products. Similar regulations also apply, among others, in the European Union (from 5 to 10 years depending on the product).
The regulations were unanimously approved by the California State Assembly and then by the California Senate (again unanimously). Now it is waiting for the final vote in the Senate, from where it will go to the desk of the state governor.
Californian regulations are important because this is where a significant number of American companies producing consumer electronics, including almost all Big Techs, have their headquarters. Perhaps the new law will force manufacturers to create less failure-prone products or at least encourage them to offer spare parts also in countries (or states) where such regulations have not been introduced.
Source: Gazeta
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