Big tech doesn't want us to have spare parts. But we can push back

Right to repair: policy & activism
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A couple of weeks ago, we got a front row seat to big tech’s efforts to water down upcoming EU repair laws.

Our very own @ugo was invited to an EU policy meeting about upcoming regulations for smartphone repairability. But also in that meeting was a lobbyist from Digital Europe, the industry body representing big tech firms like Apple, Google and Samsung.

Just before Ugo was due to speak, the industry lobbyist made the extraordinary claim that the only parts of smartphones that really break are the screen and the battery. And so, they argued, phone manufacturers shouldn’t be required to offer any other kinds of spare parts—not even to professional repairers. :exploding_head:

As many Restarters know, this simply isn’t true. There are plenty of other common problems, which spare parts can solve. (My own phone needs a replacement headphone jack and charging port, for example!)

Fortunately, thanks to the work we all did on our MobiFix data quests, we know that over 40% of the broken smartphones seen at events across our networks had problems that didn’t involve the screen or battery.

Ugo was immediately able to use our findings to directly contradict the lobbyist’s bogus arguments, scoring important points in favour of better repair rules.

This was an incredibly powerful moment: the data we’ve all been collecting and analysing just helped us stand up to some of the biggest companies in the world.

So thank you everyone for all that you do! Together, we can have a real impact :muscle:

Help us win the next argument

Come along to our online social on the 31st of July! In preparation for draft EU rules around batteries, we’ll be hanging out and diving back into our data with the latest quest: BattCat. It’ll be fun and everyone is welcome; no technical knowledge required. :tropical_drink:

:spiral_calendar: Find the details here

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I think you’re being very unfair @james

Consider how many hours of training it took for the lobbyist to say this with a straight face.

Years of dedicated commitment to the art of spouting absolute claptrap was cruelly swept away by @ugo using underhand tactics likes facts and data.

I hope you’re all throughly ashamed of yourselves…

:wink:

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Gosh, I hadn’t thought of it that way. I suppose we’ll need to mend our ways before we can fix the regulations, ey? :wink:

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Hehe, @Lee_Grant, it will take longer than just one meeting to win over the arguments, but at least we have useful insights we can refer to, thanks to the great work of this community :slight_smile:

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Absolutely agree.

It’s fabulous to know that the manufacturers and lobbyist’s tired arguments can be smashed away by the efforts of yourself, the team and the community.

I must admit, I didn’t know of Digital Europe and in less than three minutes on their website, I found:

We would confirm that most EEE placed onto the EU market is already designed for durability and longevity (Sustainable Products Initiative)

Honestly @ugo, I don’t know how you sat in a room and listened to them without laughing, shouting or crying.

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