Wired
According to the foreign media TheVerge, according to the latest legal requirements implemented in France in 2021, Apple must indicate the repairability score of iPhone and MacBook products on its online store, with a maximum score of 10. In addition, this law also requires Apple to specify the ease of repair of each component of the mobile phone and publish it on its official website. The models involved include not only new products on sale, but also old products such as iPhone 7.
The repair score is scored separately for each component of the product, and then aggregated into a total score of 10 points. The higher the score, the easier it is to repair. For MacBook notebooks, a variety of mold models are shown in the list. Since Apple is accustomed to using the same mold design for multiple generations of products, the repair score list is applicable to multiple generations of products.
Specifically, Apple’s iPhone 12 series scored above 6 points, while the previous generation iPhone 11 scored between 4.5-4.6. This means that the new phones will be easier to disassemble and spare parts will be cheaper. For MacBook, the scores of different products are not much different, between 5.6 points and 7 points.
IT House learned that the reason for France to introduce this law is to reduce electronic waste. Statistics show that only 40% of electronic products in France in 2020 will be repaired after failure. The French government’s goal is to raise this indicator to 60%. The purpose of publishing the score is to put pressure on manufacturers such as Apple to produce products that are easier to repair. Foreign media said that Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus also provides an online repair guide, which is easier to repair than previous models.
The current French law is relatively mild. Manufacturers have a one-year buffer period. Manufacturers that do not indicate the ease of maintenance will be fined after 2022. The products covered by this regulation currently include smart phones, laptops, TVs, washing machines and lawn mowers, and will expand to more product categories in the future.