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The European Parliament has come out in favor of a far-reaching right to reparations for consumers. “In the interest of sustainability, products need to be repairable so that they can stay on the market for as long as possible,” Parliament said Wednesday. A corresponding resolution with detailed requests was passed by MEPs with 395 votes in favor, 94 against and 207 abstentions.
Among other things, they called for a legal standardization of spare parts and a “minimum binding period” for their supply. So-called planned obsolescence, when products intentionally break down or age prematurely, should therefore be prohibited. In this context, the Commission has had to “investigate reports that products such as smartphones are deliberately designed so that their useful life is as short as possible”.
Conservative politicians are highly skeptical
Among the numerous abstentions from the vote on the text, there are mainly conservative parliamentarians. They had spoken out against a step that provides for “mandatory labeling” for products in order to provide consumers with “easily understandable information on the estimated useful life and repairability of a product”.
Furthermore, they wanted to enter into a narrower definition of planned obsolescence, in which manufacturers would have to show the intention of planned aging of products. SPD MP Evelyne Gebhardt welcomed the fact that this is not planned: “We do not promote sustainable consumption by putting obstacles in the way of consumers.”
As part of its broad circular economy plans, the European Commission announced in March that it will present a legislative proposal for the right to redress. In its resolution, Parliament welcomed the Commission’s action plan in principle and called on the authority to take the views of MEPs into account when drafting concrete legislative proposals.
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