Circular economy

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Right to Repair: provisional agreement reached

The European Council and Parliament have reached an agreement on the Right to Repair Directive.

Aiming to promote consumers’ access to repair services, the Directive complements other initiatives such as the Ecodesign Regulation (as part of the new consumer agenda), following the Green Deal.

Moreover, the ‘right to repair’ proposal was announced in the New Consumer Agenda and the Circular Economy Action Plan.

In essence, the EU institutions seek to prevent the large-scale premature disposal of products by implementing several measures, including:

• the possibility for consumers to request manufacturers to repair products that are technically repairable under EU law (for instance, washing machines, vacuum cleaners or mobile phones)
• a unified EU information form providing data on products’ reparability
• requirement for producers to publish information about their repair services, including indicative prices of the most common repairs, and
• an extended liability period of 12 months after repair

To boost the development of the repair market, the new rules will ensure that spare parts for technically repairable goods are made available at a reasonable price; and  manufacturers 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, in line with applicable laws.

The next step is for the provisional agreement reached by the European Parliament and Council to be endorsed and formally adopted by both institutions.