Who hasn't given up on having their washing machine or television repaired due to lack of parts or repairer? The anti-waste law passed Thursday attempts to remedy the problem, which sees the French men and women throw away a million tonnes of electrical and electronic devices each year.
A weighty issue
In France, an average household has 99 appliances. Yet a refrigerator alone mobilizes 31 times its weight in raw materials, according to the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe). And for a smartphone, a few grams of minerals even require excavating 200 kg of materials.
As for longevity, a washing machine lasts today 10-11 years and a refrigerator 13, according to the Grouping of brands of household appliances (Gifam), which adds that in 30 years the large household appliance has lost 10 months of life expectancy. According to Fnac Darty, washing machines have a service life of 8.1 years, 71% being purchased after a breakdown.
Progress, still on the way
Under popular and political pressure, manufacturers and distributors took up the subject of repairability. Seb launched its “ten-year repairable” warranty, labels appeared (“LongTime”), Fnac Darty has published an annual after-sales service barometer since 2018…
According to an Ademe survey to be published in March, failure rates have also tended to decrease since 2014, but it seems that this is due to increased reliability and not necessarily to better repairability. Among other obstacles to repair, there is also the cost: when it exceeds 30% of the value of the object, the consumer hesitates.
The manufacturers pleaded, in vain, for a drop in VAT on repair. On the other hand, the new law provides for a "fund" to reduce invoices, which remains to be specified.
Repairability note
Among its flagship measures, the law above all imposes a "repairability index". This score from 1 to 10, affixed to the product from 2021, aims to inform the consumer about the purchase, and ultimately mobilize the manufacturers, "some of whom are proactive, and others less," notes Marie Hervier, engineer at Ademe. "It was a long-standing request," said UFC-Que Choisir.
Five products will be affected first: washing machines, laptops, televisions, smartphones and mowers. This index will be subject to fraud repression checks. "Above all, there will be control of the market, associations, competitors ... this is an opportunity for manufacturers to enhance their efforts," said Camille Beurdeley, general delegate of Gifam.
Warranty and spare parts
To support the repair, the law also requires manufacturers to inform of the availability or not of spare parts, and, by default, the possibility of 3D manufacturing for certain parts. Independent professional repairers must have access to it. They can also use coins from the circular economy. Another incentive, any repaired product has its legal guarantee of conformity extended by six months.
From 2024, we should move to a “sustainability index”, which will assess, in addition to the repairability, the robustness and the scalability of the product, in particular the thorny issue of updates. Work has not started and promises hours of debate.
The law passed Thursday instructs the government to produce a report on digital devices and software obsolescence within six months. "The government wanted to legislate immediately on the duration of the updates, but it saw that it was complex", comments Caroline Marcouyoux, of the French Alliance of digital industries (Afnum).
A crime of “planned obsolescence” -
The law in 2015 defined the offense of “planned obsolescence”. A signal to manufacturers, but the difficulty is to prove the intentional nature. In France, two actions are underway against Epson and Apple. For Ms. Hervier, this notion of "planned" obsolescence has sometimes had a perverse effect in "clearing the consumer, who said" nothing can be repaired "". "Now you have to take the step (to go to repair), you may be surprised," she adds, referring to two sites to find a repairer (www.annuaire-reparation.fr) and diagnosing the failure ( longuevieauxobjets.gouv.fr).
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