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Comment by spamizbad | Hacker News Reader

You are conflating Right to Repair efforts in Europe with those in the US. Naturally, the US laws are more deferential to capital interests and is less consumer-friendly, and simply ask that companies don't ban the sale of components to independent repair shops, firmware lockouts of replacement parts that only the manufacturer can provide, etc.

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What does the European definition of "right to repair" entail, then?

The article gives some examples, but I think more broadly the European Right to Repair efforts seem to align the repairability of consumer electronics with what we've come to expect from automobiles.

That industry can also use some "right to repair". I can't type www.peugeot.fr and find schematics, propriety diagnostic codes and repair instructions.

Granted, these are available from 3rd parties for a rather modest fee.

They've got a whole study about it, if you've got time to read it (I haven't :):

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2020/6487...

Not exactly the answer to your question but France recently adopted a repairability score that has to be shown, just like the energy efficency class or nutrition labels.

The criteria are:

1- Documentation

2- Ease of disassembly, with a subsection on the necessary tools and a focus on the parts that are most likely to be serviced (for smartphones: battery, screen, ...)

3- Availability of spare parts

4- Price of spare parts relative to the finished product price

5- Extra criteria which depend on the type of item, for a smartphone, software updates are in this category

and Apple devices score 7 out of 10 and up. Its all self assessment. This law is a farce.

iPhones are surprisingly repairable. But yes, some scores are... unexpected.

The idea is good, the implementation needs improvement. Germany hasn't adopted the French approach, but awaits a Europe-wide initiative. Let's hope the lobbyists can't pull its teeth.

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