The European Commission wants to oblige smartphone manufacturers to increase battery life and produce spare parts within 5 years

The European Commission has published a bill that will tighten requirements for smartphone manufacturers. In particular, it is designed to improve the repairability of gadgets and extend their life cycle.

Details

The European Commission has several requirements for companies. First, within 5 years after the release of the device to guarantee service centers and workshops, and the availability of at least 15 different spare parts. This means that within 5 years, users can easily replace the battery, display, charger, back cover and even the tray for the SIM card and memory card.

The draft notes that increasing repairability to 5 years would be roughly equivalent to removing 5 million cars from the roads. That is a significant reduction in the amount of electronic waste.

Secondly, manufacturers must increase battery life, namely to ensure that batteries retain 80% of their rated capacity after 1,000 full charging cycles. In addition, software upgrades should not affect battery life.

Finally, the bill provides for energy efficiency labeling, which will allow customers to know the expected battery life, information about the device's protection against water and dust, and an assessment of the gadget's resistance to accidental drops.

These requirements do not apply to devices with flexible screens and protected gadgets designed for extreme conditions.

We emphasize that so far it is only a draft law, which consists of proposals that need improvement and have not yet been approved.

Source: European Commission