Canada's budget which just released, said that they plan to do similar legislation in the summer. I do hope they follow through as described.
I think its a great move forward. There were some significant differences. Europe is going down the obligated cost-effective repairs. Inevitably europe will be under constant problems of 'cost-effective' definitions. Not to mention extended warranties. Per country as well makes that a huge mess.
Whereas Canada seems to be going down the road that you're moreso allowed to repair your own. You similarly get access to parts and tools, but no obligation from the manufacturer.
Canada's big one is that copyrights may be violated for any repairs. Canada becomes the pirate/crack capital of the world after this. I love it!
One should take EU's press releases about their legislation with a grain of salt. They are essentially ads (which I find a bit out of place for legislative bodies).
Right to repair activists are a bit less enthusiastic: "Considering the limited scope and ambition, we feel that the opportunity was missed to make this initiative into something that would actually merit the title ‘Right to repair directive’. As things stand, this piece of regulation could be more aptly described as an ‘annex to the existing ecodesign regulations.’ In essence, its main effect will be to somewhat increase the chances that the small number of products that already had to be repairable by law anyway, will actually end up being repaired."
https://repair.eu/news/analysis-of-the-adopted-directive-on-...
Right to repair is great, but it doesn't solve the problem that things are manufactured to break.
What I always want is a guaranteed minimum product life that isn't absolute shit.
"Sure your $2000 refrigerator died after a year, but now you can pay more to make it work again" is a garbage bargain.
> Manufacturers will have to provide spare parts and tools at a reasonable price and will be prohibited from using contractual clauses, hardware or software techniques that obstruct repairs. In particular, they cannot impede the use of second-hand or 3D-printed spare parts by independent repairers, nor can they refuse to repair a product solely for economic reasons or because it was previously repaired by someone else.
That's wonderful !