The repair of electrical and electronic devices has experienced "a probable significant price increase" since the introduction of a "boost" from the State to encourage consumers to repair this equipment, fears Wednesday the consumer association CLCV. Consommation Logement Cadre de Vie (CLCV), commissioned by eco-organizations to set up an observatory of the repair fund launched in mid-December, publishes a first assessment of the first three months of the system.
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It is still too early to draw a general conclusion, and caution must be exercised in interpreting the data," the agency said. At this stage, the repair bonus, which ranges from 10 to 45 euros depending on the device repaired, was on average 24 euros, and reduced the price of the bill by 22%. CLCV also observed a sharp increase in its use, between the start of the bonus and March. But the observatory fears "a likely significant increase" in the average price of repairs.
It is difficult to compare perfectly before and after the bonus, because the ADEME figures, used for the comparison, were based on expert estimates (when the prices of the observatory are the real prices, resulting from a large volume of repairs). However, on the two categories of most repaired products, it now appears an average repair price of 164 euros for a dishwasher against 125 euros according to Ademe, and 146 euros for a dryer against 119 euros according to Ademe: "even including a margin of error, it is likely that the price of these repairs has experienced significant inflation. " notes the association. The evolution of repair prices will be refined in the next observatories, she adds.
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Insufficient mesh size
CLCV also points to the still insufficient and uneven network of labeled stores on the territory. In mid-March, more than 1200 stores were labeled "Quali Répar" (out of some 30,000 repair sites identified in France by Ademe). Several departments in the north have 50 labeled stores, while others do not, such as Creuse and Lozère. In April, the government criticized the slow pace of this start, promising to increase the amount of aid and threatening major retailers to force them to join the network.
The "repair bonus" was created by law to extend the life of equipment. To date, some 20,000 repairs have benefited from this bonus, financed by the "eco-contributions" included in the price of all devices. While the demand often concerns mobile phones, CLCV supports support for the repair of broken screens, still excluded.
