As of: April 2, 2024, 6:00 a.m
By: Lea Warmedinger
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Repairing electrical appliances is not easy. Individual parts are often installed so tightly that you can hardly get to them (symbolic photo). © picture alliance/dpa
The EU has decided on a right to repair. Workshop cafés and electronics stores are enthusiastic about it.
District - There will soon be a right to repair across the EU - Parliament has agreed on this. For Lothar Rimane from the Caritas workshop café in Erding and Stefan Tremmel from the Heuschneider electronics store in Dorfen, the law would be a blessing. But both doubt whether the manufacturers will implement it that way.
The right to repair is intended to make it easier for consumers to repair broken devices and thus counteract the throwaway society. Manufacturers would have to offer spare parts and instructions. What Rimane thinks is a shame: The law only covers a few products, the so-called white goods such as refrigerators, washing machines or stoves. Vacuum cleaners were also included – “luckily,” he says. But most electronic devices such as televisions, radios, coffee machines, irons and lamps are not affected by the law, “I miss that a lot.” At least cell phones and tablets are included.
The law would not change much for the operation of the workshop café, as you cannot bring the white goods with you. Nevertheless, Rimane, organizer and founding member of the workshop café, thinks the law is great - he has even collected signatures for it. The initiator Anna Cavazzini from the EU Parliament sent a circular email to independent workshops, whereupon Rimane submitted 60 signatures.
Heuschneider boss Tremmel is also enthusiastic about the right to repair: “I’ve wanted it for years,” he says. “My heart bleeds when I see what people throw away.” So many things could still be repaired, “you could save a lot of electronic waste.” When it comes to hay cutting, you try to repair as much as possible in your own workshop, as the customer wants it. The problem: The manufacturers often did not provide spare parts.
In the past, these were generally available for ten years, Tremmel remembers. Today there are often only five, but many manufacturers do not offer any original replacement parts at all, such as Apple. There are many replicas on the Internet, “but if you install something like that, the guarantee will be void.” Such spare parts are often not without danger.
Another example that Tremmel recently had is a Dyson cordless vacuum cleaner that costs 500 to 600 euros. “I can order the battery, but there is no on/off switch.” And without this spare part you could throw away the vacuum cleaner.
Even if there are spare parts, they are often more expensive than the device itself, says Rimane. A woman once came into the workshop café with an iron from Braun that cost 100 euros. It no longer worked because the heating sole burned out, but that would have cost 90 euros plus shipping. That wouldn't have been cheaper than buying new. In addition, individual parts are often installed in such a way that you can't even get to them. With electric toothbrushes, for example, it is impossible to replace the battery.
Rimane remembers times when things were different: “There were so many small trades, such as watchmakers, cobblers or carpenters who would sometimes repair a chair.” Plumbers even soldered pots and upholsterers reupholstered a sofa. But not only the manufacturers have changed, but also people's thinking: “Many people always want to have the latest,” especially when it comes to smartphones.
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Tremmel has a different impression: “Customers would like to repair their devices; they have now internalized the idea of sustainability.” If the right to repair were also made into German law, people would turn to quality products instead of cheap no-name brands take hold, he predicts. “Because they know it will last longer.”
But it could take a while for that to happen: “It could be a fight with the manufacturers’ lobby,” suspects Tremmel. Rimane fears that the manufacturers will somehow wiggle their way out of this. As with many others, there will be gaps in the law here, he says. Tremmel assumes that the prices for spare parts will rise.
“The basic idea of the law is excellent,” says Rimane. “I hope it's a start.” Making an effort to keep things alive longer and to use finite resources wisely is also the basic idea of the workshop café, which has been taking place at the Heilig Blut girls' secondary school for ten years. “Actually, every device should be built to last five to ten years,” he says.