Tech companies brace for the new EU right-to-repair law
While Google has changed its tune on repairing devices, Apple remains opposed. Read More

On July 30, the European Union officially enacted its Right-to-Repair Law (R2R), mandating that all manufacturers make repair services “more accessible, transparent, and attractive.” Similar to laws passed in California and Oregon, the EU’s Right-to-Repair directive requires businesses to offer repair to consumers regardless of the warranty period, unless it’s more expensive to repair the item than replace it.
The directive aims to decrease e-waste and consumer-related costs for products, while lowering the barrier to entry for smaller, local technology repair businesses previously shut out of the market.
“Why throw out an entire main board, when with just some board level soldering replacement of the appropriate components, you can then reuse that board as you need?” asked Steven Nickel, director of operations for Google’s devices and services team.
Apple’s anti-repair stance
According to Nickel, Google has been on a right-to-repair journey for years, positioning the corporation to not only take the tightening rules in stride, but also actively advocate for its implementation. In April, Google publicly supported the state of Oregon as it passed its own R2R laws.
That’s in contrast to Google rival Apple, which has actively lobbied against R2R efforts. Earlier this year, Apple’s principal secure repair architect John Perry unsuccessfully testified against the passage of Oregon’s R2R law.
“It is our belief that the bill’s current language around parts pairing will undermine the security, safety and privacy of Oregonians by forcing device manufacturers to allow the use of parts of unknown origin in consumer devices,” testified Perry.
Google has not always been pro-R2R either. An analysis from the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) reported that Google lobbied against the passage of R2R laws in both California and Colorado.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment. But with the enactment of the new EU law, the company is moving forward to comply with the directive.
A June blog on the company’s website announced the expansion of the company’s self service repair support to Europe. The feature is a direct-to-consumer app that allows customers to diagnosis service issues on their Apple device.
Apple also released a white paper in June, outlining its strategy for technology repair and committing to continue to “support customers who choose to use third-party repair services, parts, and repair tools.”

Industry reactions
The Right to Repair Europe Coalition, a trade association representing over 140 organizations, reacted to the law as a mixed bag.
“Despite the limited scope, this right to repair directive is a step in the right direction,” said Cristina Ganapini, a coordinator at Right to Repair Europe, in a press release.
Thomas Opsomer, a repair policy engineer at iFixit, expanded on the directives limited scope in the same release, saying, “An opportunity was missed for measures applying to all electric and electronic products.” Those products include kitchen appliances, security systems, and smaller items such as hairdryers and electric toothbrushes.
Right to Repair Europe applauded another aspect of the law: a newly introduced online matchmaking platform called the Platform for Repairs. Nickel confirmed that Google plans to take advantage of the platform to help consumers find local affiliated repair shops, but it’s still too early to know exactly how the program will work.
Google is also engaging with smaller, local repair businesses in the EU and Great Britain. In Germany, Google and Apple partner with Comspot, a German technology repair brand. This allows both companies to not only comply with the new law, but also discourage new competition.
The right to address challenges
For companies moving to comply the EU’s R2R directive, challenges will include the many unrelated aspects of the law, such as the intersection of the directive with its subcategory, Ecodesign Regulations.
“The directive works kind of horizontally across products, and then the Ecodesign guidelines are very vertical specific to product categories,” said Nickel. For example, Ecodesign requires phones and tablets to be designed with reparability and durability in mind, but some requirements are then superseded by the directive’s more general mandates.
The language of the directive also introduces potential challenges and loopholes.
“Many loopholes were introduced,” said Right to Repair’s response, including a provision that allows producers to decide upon a reasonable price for a spare part. This could enable manufacturers to artificially inflate the price of parts, pricing out consumers from repairing their products.
The key will be to “hold manufacturers accountable,” said Nickel.
