Repairing the market: A cross-European repairability check

To assess the degree to which consumers can repair their products, BEUC coordinated a market check together with several member consumer organisations. The findings offer a snapshot of the repairability practices offered by selected brands in key EU markets to identify best practices, weaknesses, and opportunities to further foster a shift to repair over replacement. It also aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Ecodesign measures in enabling repair, by comparing product groups within the scope of EU requirements against product groups with no specific EU legislation.

We found that:

1. Smartphones enjoy better access to both spare parts and repair instructions than battery vacuum cleaners.

2. For smartphones, repair instructions are generally comprehensive and enable consumers and professionals to carry out most repairs. For battery vacuum cleaners, however, the information is typically limited to maintenance and basic troubleshooting, offering little repair support.

3. But the cost of repair remains high for both products, reducing the attractiveness of repair. For smartphones, the highest-priced component (a €400 display) was around 30% of the product’s original purchase price. For battery vacuum cleaners, the most expensive spare part identified (a €281 battery) was 50% higher than the product’s original price.