In future, consumers in the European Union will have the right to have their products repaired. This is provided for in a law agreed by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers at the beginning of February. Defective goods must therefore be able to be repaired within a reasonable period of time - for a fee - even after the end of the two-year minimum warranty period.
In parallel with this development, the EU member states recently agreed on the new Ecodesign Regulation for sustainable products, which, as a framework regulation, will in future stipulate repairability in the product design for many products for manufacturers. TÜV Rheinland is offering a new service to enable manufacturers to prove the reparability of their products.
The testing company takes a close look at the products and determines a repair index. Manufacturers can use the analysis and the repair index to obtain the most accurate information possible about repairability and to adapt to the new legal requirements. This makes it possible to show how efficiently a product can be repaired in the event of a defect or where there is potential for improvement.
To determine the repair index, TÜV Rheinland's experts check the product documentation and analyze the product itself to determine which parts are the most important for the function of a product to be repaired. A disassembly test determines whether and how a product can actually be repaired. The result of the tests is a report with a transparent assessment of reparability based on an index. The tests are carried out in accordance with the product regulations and standards published by the EU or in France.
Even though the new regulations still have to be confirmed by Parliament, TÜV recommends that manufacturers start working on proving the repairability of their products now. After all, products that can be easily repaired are highly valued by consumers, especially commercial buyers and public procurement bodies in the EU.
The new regulation covers numerous product groups, such as washing machines, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, smartphones and tablets. For washing machines, for example, the rules stipulate that they must be repairable for at least ten years after purchase.
