How the right to repair electronic devices can change technology

Surera Ward has been running a tech repair service in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, called Girls Fix It for four years.

During that period, she and her team have managed to better understand the electronic devices that arrive in their workshops. But the same has not happened with its arrangement. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to repair various devices,” he says.

It’s not just access to key equipment that Ward finds difficult, as she often has to import specialized tools from China so she and her staff can work.

For example, once they finish repairing a customer’s phone, the device often displays error messages that are coded into the device by the manufacturers to discourage the user from going to an unauthorized expert.

Repairs have become more difficult thanks to the growing practice of parts matching.that links individual components to the devices they come with, using specific serial numbers.

But how might the nature of the tech industry change as new laws are introduced in the United States and Europe to give consumers more power to repair their devices?

The hope is that it can help reduce technology’s impact on the environment by making devices last longer. Could it also improve the products we buy, or could it perhaps just be a way for manufacturers to raise their prices for consumers by selling ‘repair kits’ and expensive spare parts?

Ward’s company and similar companies typically charge up to 50% less to repair a device than an authorized agent., such as Apple’s Genius Bar. But many customers don’t go there because they’re afraid they’ll get an error message or have some functionality of their device disabled after an “unofficial fix.”

The high cost of manufacturers’ official repair services, combined with the difficulty of accessing them, often causes consumers to give up and simply replace their device with a new one.

And all this means that we throw them away more often.

“We live in an era where our growth model is actually about getting rid of things,” said René Repasi, a German member of the European Parliament who is leading efforts to pass a law that would guarantee the right to repair for Europeans. captures consumers. “Basically we buy a new product every two years and the production capacity of our industry is based on these types of models.”

Many of the electronics in our homes, from televisions to vacuum cleaners, are used on average 2.3 years less than their intended lifespan.This is evident from a report by the European Environment Agency.

That highlights the problem of increasing obsolescence, with products going out of fashion in the eyes of consumers – who are urged to buy newer models – or equipment becoming incompatible with software updates.

Some manufacturers also stop releasing security updates for software on older devices. and some major companies have been fined for deliberately slowing down devices with update software.

The impact this has on the environment is significant, both in terms of the electronic waste it produces (an estimated 53 million tonnes were thrown away in 2020) and the extraction of rare earth metals needed to make the new devices.

Model ‘Knife and edge’

The rapid pace of change in consumer device software has helped companies improve their ability to reduce product repairs. And that power has increased over time, although it has also triggered an opposite reaction among consumers who are fed up with the perpetual cycle of buying new products from companies, says Aaron Perzanowski, a professor at the University of Michigan and consumer products expert. law.

“There are a number of explanations for why I think we’ve seen a shift in momentum in recent years,” he notes.

One is the aggressive way companies are developing obsolescenceforcing users to go to authorized places to repair their devices or making spare parts impossibly expensive.

It is part of a broader measure aimed at discouraging the repair of a device in exchange for its replacement with a new one.

“Companies became too aggressive, too voracious and overreached in some key ways,” says Perzanowski, pointing to printers with installed ink cartridges that don’t print when the user cancels their subscription to the service.

This charging model, called “Blade and Edge”, true the user must subscribe to a service for a device that belongs to him, has become common in the technology industry. An example is the cloud storage subscription service that frees up space in device memory. If the account is closed, the consumer may lose their stored data or, if they switch to a competing device, no longer have access to it.

Enshrining rights in law

These situations have led to certain regulators taking action curbing the excesses of consumer culture and advocating for the right to repair.

The European Union has taken a major lead in promoting the right to repair and other similar legislation that allows consumers to free themselves from the trap of an expensive ecosystem of device manufacturers.

The impact of these legal requirements in favor of users is already visible. Apple’s latest mobile phone, the iPhone 15, has a generic USB-C charging port, instead of its own and exclusive port lightning.

The change was made in response to EU rules that required generic connectors for electronic devices so that consumers did not have to buy multiple expensive specialized cables and chargers for their devices. In the United Kingdom, a charger lightning costs $22, while a generic USB-C cable can be purchased for a tenth of that cost.

The right to recovery law is expected to come into force in early 2024, following a vote in the European Parliament in November.

Meanwhile, countries are taking action at the national level to raise awareness about the harms of throwing away devices instead of repairing them. As of 2021, some appliances sold in France, including smartphones, washing machines, laptops, lawn mowers and televisions, They come with a rating indicating how repairable they arein hopes of encouraging purchase from those with better reviews.

In California, US, the Right to Repair Act was passed, following similar legislation in New York, Colorado and Minnesota. These require manufacturers to provide the correct tools, spare parts and software to repair the devices. Companies like Apple have already been seen developing programs and repair kits with accompanying instructions.

President Joe Biden also recently issued an executive order to give US consumers the right to repair their own appliances, a move supported by some manufacturers.

Perzanowski believes that the situation is much better than three or four years ago, but there is still a long way to go to guarantee consumer rights. “This is a complex problem that cannot be solved by a rule, a lawsuit or legislation alone.”

How much will the products change?

These consumer-level measures, along with new regulations, are expected to change the way products are made, sold and used, resulting in more device repairs than replacements.

Girls Fix It’s Surera Ward points this out Little needs to be changed at the equipment level to make devices more repairable. “With the technology we have, they can make these changes without affecting the devices,” he says. “Some of these things are more software related. “The way the phone works wouldn’t change.”

For European parliamentarian René Repasi, change is inevitable and he believes we will return to devices that come with interchangeable batteries, as was the case with first-generation mobile phones and laptops.

However, lasting change will also depend on who has the right to repair such devices. “If I had a defective product, I could go to a local repair shop five minutes away, leave it there, have a cup of coffee and have my product back within an hour,” he explains.

According to him, this speed in delivery time could be possible with 3D printed products on demand., taken from centralized spare parts databases. Other devices could be designed modularly, so that defective components can be replaced instead of the entire device.

That would reduce costs overall, but Repasi envisions a future where repairs are subsidized by manufacturers as an incentive for industries to become environmentally sustainable. Indicates that there is already one similar program in Germany and Austria This allows low-income users to benefit from repairs.

The future is coming, says Repasi, and our devices and the way we interact with them will soon change. “This is one of the most interesting developments in terms of how quickly it will revolutionize the way markets behave,” he says. (JO)