The right to repair

European Economic and Social Committee's opinion on the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on common rules promoting the repair of goods and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/2394, Directives (EU) 2019/771 and (EU) 2020/1828 - COM(2023) 155 final - 2023/0083 (COD)

Key points:

The EESC:

• welcomes the Commission's package of proposals aimed at facilitating product repairability and at making the possibility to repair effective and timely, by taking action from the design stage to the end of a product's life cycle;

• points out that the right to repair can be strengthened if the consumers are better informed: the establishment of a national platform compiling all this information is therefore a positive move but the conditions for setting it up and updating it need to be set out in more detail;

• believes that strengthening distributors' obligation to repair should come with proper implementation of distributors' right to recourse against manufacturers, especially with regard to spare parts and costs;

• calls on the Commission to assess the possibility of supporting data sharing for spare parts and product repairability, as part of the ongoing modernisation of the intellectual property framework;

• is of the opinion that the right to repair should also involve a ban on intentional practices, such as serialisation, which hinder the ability to repair;

• believes that costs are one of the main barriers to repairing thus it encourages measures to make the market for second-hand product materials and safe and recycled spare parts more competitive by reinforcing its infrastructure and of adopting adequate legislation.

For more information please contact the INT Section Secretariat

EESC opinion on EU Directive on the Right to Repair