Some of you might remember my rant regarding the Papershoot camera, a low-end, low lifespan, non repairable product sold for an obscene amount of money as an environment friendly (sic.) alternative (sic.) to film photography.
Here is the “We Are Rewind” portable cassette player.
The W.A.R. is a completely sealed, low-end, lo-fi, cassette player equipped with a low-grade bluetooth headphones connection and 5 year, non replaceable battery life.
The unit sells for a whopping €149.
Interestingly, it is marketed by a French company and so appears to be unaffected by the recent EU legislation on planned obsolescence.
Thanks for sharing this.
Unfortunately current legislation in France or in the EU doesn’t directly cover this type of products. However a new EU battery directive was finally finalised in December, and it will require device manufacturers and importers to sell products with user-replaceable batteries starting in 2026/2027 (exact date to be confirmed, but it will only apply to new products placed on the market then).
As part of the EU Right to Repair Campaign, we spent a long time pushing for this - it’s not perfect, as some devices used primarily near water will be exempted, but in any case it will become impossible to sell products with unreplaceable batteries. We hope the UK will adopt the same approach, but this will be mandatory for any products to be sold across the EU, so it’s a start.
You can read more on this here:
