In parallel to its efforts on the Sustainable Products Initiative (which aims to set a framework for the design of more sustainable products), which is expected to be published later this year, the European Commission is conducting a public consultation on the ‘right to repair’. Please send us your preferences on the policy options, including a reasoning to explain your choices, until 25 February 2022 COB.
The Commission wants to assess the option of changing a key part of its consumer protection legislation, the Sale of Goods Directive 2019/771, to include new aspects on sustainability, particularly targeted at the legal warranties provided at the time of sale. A proposal to amend the Sale of Goods Directive in this sense is expected to be presented in Q3 2022. The responses to this consultation might however also feed into a separate legislative proposal aiming for a much further-reaching ‘right to repair’.
Problem the Commission wants to tackle
The Commission asserts that businesses currently have few incentives to bring goods onto the market that have a long lifetime, can be easily repaired or refurbished. The Sale of Goods Directive gives consumers the choice between having the seller repair or replace products that were defective at the moment of delivery. In practice consumers generally choose to replace them.
Furthermore, consumers often face significant challenges to repair the products when their legal warrantee has expired, or when the damage was caused through a fault of their own. This is often due to the fact that high repair costs (higher than the cost of new product) lead the consumer to simply dispose of it and buy a new product. The Commission has also identified a consumer bias against second hand products.
To remediate the problem, the Commission wants to adapt the Sale of Goods Directive, and has published a call for evidence for an impact assessment, in which it is considering the following policy options:
1. Low intervention – voluntary commitments: Encourage businesses to commit voluntarily to repairing goods which have a significant negative impact on the environment and promote the purchase of second-hand and refurbished goods.
2. Moderate intervention:
A. Extend the legal guarantee period:
- for new goods that consumers choose to repair instead of replacing them; and/or
- for second-hand and/or refurbished goods (amendments to the Directive).
B. Make repair the preferred remedy when repair is less expensive than or as expensive as replacement (amendment to the Directive); oblige producers or sellers to repair goods beyond the legal guarantee period for a reasonable price (new right to repair within the Directive or a separate instrument).
3. High intervention:
A) Limit consumers’ choice of remedies by prioritising repair over replacement (amendment to the Directive); Oblige producers or sellers to repair goods beyond the legal guarantee period, in some cases for free (new right to repair within the Directive or a separate instrument).
B) Extend the legal guarantee period beyond the current minimum period of 2 years (amendment to the Directive).
C) Enable the seller to replace defective products with refurbished goods and not new ones (amendment to the Directive).
The public consultation runs until 5 April 2022. Considering this rather large timescale, we would like you to give us your reasoned preferences on the different policy options put forward. We would very much value your strategic foresight on this issue (effect of increased repair and durability on your business, role your organisation wants to play in the repair landscape). Depending on your responses, we will determine whether we will need to draft a more comprehensive position paper, or can submit your comments directly in the consultation.
Please send us your preferences on the policy options, including a reasoning to explain your choices, until 25 February 2022 COB. We thank you very much in advance.
