Right to Repair: Fixing Things Is Normal Again

Throwing away a smartphone because the battery is failing was never a technical necessity – it was a business model. That exact model is now being wound down: the EU has turned repairability from a niche concern into a legal requirement, and the effects are now reaching buyers’ everyday lives.

Key takeaways

• The USB-C mandate, ecodesign rules, the Battery Regulation and the Right to Repair Directive together form a regulatory toolkit that turns repairability into a requirement rather than a nice-to-have.
• Manufacturers must supply spare parts for years and offer repairs at reasonable prices – even after the warranty has expired.
• A repairability index modelled on the French original makes repairability visible right on the shelf.
• Repairable devices demonstrably hold their resale value better and lower total costs over their lifetime.
• When buying, it pays to check the update commitment, spare-parts availability and build quality upfront – not only once something breaks.

What’s changing on the regulatory side

What laws actually sit behind the “right to repair” label? A multi-part toolkit that achieves more together than any single rule: the USB-C mandate ended the charging-cable chaos. The ecodesign rules oblige smartphone and tablet manufacturers to supply spare parts for years, provide software updates over many years, and meet minimum requirements on battery durability. The Battery Regulation will make easily replaceable batteries the standard again within a few years – a genuine reversal after more than a decade of glued-shut casings. And the Right to Repair Directive gives consumers a claim on manufacturers to repair common products at reasonable prices even after the warranty period, including access to spare parts for independent repair shops. On top of that comes a repairability index modelled on the French original, which makes repairability visible right on the shelf.

How the repairability index works

What exactly does an index like this score, and how do you read the number? The French original awards a mark from 0 to 10, made up of several criteria: how easily a device opens, whether spare parts are available and affordable, whether repair guides exist, and how the device is built internally – screwed or glued, modular or soldered. A high score doesn’t automatically mean “cheap device”, but rather “a device you can repair without specialist tools and without the manufacturer’s service”. For buyers, the index is a quick point of comparison, much like an energy label – a single glance is enough to spot rough differences between models without having to take a device apart yourself.

Before and after: what actually changes for buyers

Aspect	Before regulation	With right-to-repair rules
Charging cable	different for each manufacturer	standardised on USB-C
Battery	often permanently glued in	increasingly easy to swap
Spare parts	often only through manufacturer service	also accessible to independent repair shops
Update duration	manufacturer’s discretion, often short	statutory minimum periods
Repairability	hard for buyers to judge	visible via the index before purchase

Why this is more than green politics

Is repairability just a sustainability topic for idealists? No – it has quietly become a quality signal that brings hard financial benefits. Retained value – devices with a swappable battery and a long update commitment hold their resale value markedly better. Total cost – a battery swap for a fraction of the retail price extends useful life by years, a point that also matters when weighed against buying refurbished: repaired old devices only become refurbished stock once spare parts are available at all. Independence – available parts and guides mean the independent repair shop around the corner is a real option again, not just the manufacturer’s service centre. Companies such as Fairphone and Framework have shown that modular design can work at mass-market scale; regulation is now forcing the big players to catch up too.

Buying repairable – the step-by-step checklist

1. Check the update commitment: seven years of software support is now achievable from major smartphone manufacturers – the figure is usually right on the product page.
2. Look at the repair index or a teardown rating: a glance at the repairability index or an independent teardown rating shows how the device is built internally.
3. Google spare-parts availability: does the manufacturer run an official spare-parts shop? Are there repair guides?
4. Check the build: favour screwed-together construction – a glued design is a warning sign of higher repair costs later.
5. Clarify battery swappability: especially for laptops and larger devices: is the battery a wear part you can replace, or is it permanently fixed in place?
6. Read the warranty terms on self-repair: find out whether and how a DIY intervention affects the manufacturer’s warranty – the statutory warranty is usually unaffected.
7. Follow the right order for your old device: repair, pass on, re-commerce – the shredder is the worst option for both the environment and your wallet.

The most common mistakes around repairs

Where do buyers unnecessarily waste money or usable lifespan? Replacing a device the moment it first breaks, without even getting a repair quote – often a repair costs a fraction of buying new. Only asking the expensive manufacturer service for repairs, even though independent repair shops using original parts are now often cheaper and faster. Ignoring battery condition until the device barely lasts through the day, instead of swapping it pre-emptively. Focusing purely on price when buying and completely overlooking the update commitment and repairability – the apparent saving costs more at the latest with the first defect. Stashing a working old device in a drawer, instead of repairing it, giving it away, or selling it via re-commerce – that’s good for neither the environment nor your wallet.

How the rules differ by device category

Do the new requirements apply equally strictly everywhere? No – smartphones and tablets are furthest along, where spare-parts obligations and minimum update periods already apply. Laptops follow with their own ecodesign requirements, still being built out. For large household appliances – washing machines, fridges – repair requirements have in some cases existed for longer, often with explicit minimum spare-parts periods of up to ten years. The least regulated so far are smaller electronics such as wireless earbuds, where a permanently built-in battery is barely avoidable on technical grounds – here, being cautious about very expensive models remains the most pragmatic response.

From experience: anyone unsure whether a repair is worth it should remember one simple number before getting a quote: if the repair costs less than 30 to 40 per cent of the price of a comparable new device, repairing is almost always the economically better choice – all the more so if several years of software updates remain. Only above that threshold is it worth doing a detailed comparison with buying new or refurbished.

Repair or replace? A decision guide

When is it worth heading to a repair shop, and when is a new device the better choice? Two simple criteria cover most decisions: repair, if the repair cost is under 30 to 40 per cent of the retail price and the device still receives several more years of software updates. Repair, if only a single component is affected – battery, screen, charging port – and the rest of the device is intact. Replace, if several faults occur at once and the combined repair costs approach the price of a new device. Replace, if the manufacturer’s update commitment has already expired – then even a freshly repaired device remains a security risk. These four points don’t replace a case-by-case assessment, but they cleanly cover the vast majority of everyday cases.

The bottom line

The throwaway era of electronics isn’t ending out of idealism, but because its economics are tipping: repairable devices are cheaper to run, hold their value better, and are increasingly a requirement rather than a nice-to-have. Anyone who deliberately checks the update commitment, the repair index and build quality on their next purchase rarely pays more – but gains years of usable life. And for an old device, the simplest rule in the whole debate still applies: repair before you throw away.