The European Commission takes a major step to lower the environmental impact of smartphones and tablets.
The new rules will decrease costs for consumers, mitigate carbon emissions and reduce the use of raw materials used in these devices.
From June 2025, in line with the new Ecodesign and Energy Labelling regulations, smartphones and tablets entering the EU market will be required to meet minimum requirements and provide information on product energy efficiency, ease of repair, battery lifespan, resilience against dust and water, as well as resistance to accidental drops. The Energy Labelling Regulation introduces a requirement for mobile devices to display the A-G energy class rating, as well as a score for each aforementioned aspect.
Further product information will be accessible through the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling (EPREL).
The European Commission said, “These measures help to make the EU’s economy more circular, save energy, cut our carbon footprint, support circular business models and deliver the benefits of the European Green Deal for consumers… Mobile phones and tablets produced according to these rules will save almost 14 terawatt hours in primary energy each year by 2030. This is one third of the primary energy consumption of these products today.”
The combined impact of the Ecodesign and Energy Labelling regulations is estimated to reduce purchase, repair, maintenance and energy-related costs for consumers by 25%, while mitigating 53 Mt of CO2 by 2040. They also aim to decrease the use of new materials for production by 35%, along with a 22% reduction in the use of critical raw materials.
CLASP, along with Right to Repair Europe, played an instrumental role in shaping the Ecodesign Regulation. Their research highlighted the challenges EU citizens face in repairing their devices, due to limited options imposed by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) that only offer repairs for specific key parts.
Nicole Kearney, CLASP Europe Director, stated “The European Commission has demonstrated an exemplary focus on prioritizing circularity and the consumer’s right to repair. Ensuring Europeans can more easily repair, rather than replace, their smartphones and tablets, will help reduce e-waste, carbon emissions, as well as costs for consumers.”
Right to Repair Europe said these regulations are a big step for the ecodesign of smartphones and tablets and of ICT products in general. They set good practices that are fundamental to ensure a universal right to repair, and we are looking forward to seeing how the regulated products will be designed. Nonetheless, this is just the beginning, and there is still significant progress to be made.
For example, the affordability of repair is not tackled as the price of spare parts is neither limited nor considered in the calculation of the repair index. Given that the price of repair is one of the main factors that influences the choice of end-users to repair a product or not, it is regrettable that manufacturers will only have to indicate the pre-tax prices of the spare parts, prices to which manufacturers will not have to commit.
Furthermore, Right to Repair Europe pointed out that the text poorly tackles the matter of part-pairing, one of the main barriers to repairing products for end-users and independent repairers. Professional repairers will have access to information and tools to substitute and repair serialised parts, which is a significant win. However, an outright ban of part-pairing would have been a more fundamental step towards a universal right to repair, and we regret that the opportunity was not seized.
Right to Repair Europe believes the legislation could have gone further in terms of facilitating self-repair. Manufacturers will still have the option not to provide spare batteries to end-users, under the condition that they respect certain longevity and waterproofness requirements. This creates a false dichotomy between repairability and durability, especially given that a number of waterproof electronic products with replaceable batteries (including smartphones) are already on the market. Right to Repair Europe also regret the significantly limited number of spare parts available to end-users, as compared to the list that concerns professional repairers.
