Unrepairable phones and laptops are one of the scandals of our throwaway society, but now France is taking on big tech to address “planned obsolescence.” Beginning in January 2021, France will begin rolling out repairability tags. That means that consumers will now have the right to repair their devices. Products will be required to be labeled according to their durability, how to repair them, where to get parts to repair them, and a repairability score on a scale of 1 to 10 that will be calculated on a few parameters like the ease of disassembly, price and availability of spare parts. Surveys have shown that 77% of consumers would prefer to repair their devices than replace them and believe manufacturers should facilitate consumers in repairing devices. Until now, technology companies have designed their devices in such a way that replacement is the only option when they no longer work.
