New bill discussed in the EU could force OEM manufacturers to provide firmware updates to the smartphone

The European Union has adopted a tough stance on climate change many years ago, including enacting laws to reduce the billions of e-waste generated each year.

For example, we mentioned earlier that the European Union is considering forcing Apple to give up the Lighting interface to USB-C, which can increase the versatility of parts and reduce waste.

The European Parliament is currently discussing a new bill called the “right to repair”, which was originally targeted at home appliances but has since been extended to mobile phones and computer products.

We first need to introduce the definition of EU maintenance right. The maintenance right here is quite different from the maintenance right we usually understand.

The EU maintenance right refers specifically to professional parts in household appliances or products such as mobile phones and computers, rather than parts that can be easily replaced by regular consumers.

The difference is that at present there is no legal requirement for manufacturers to provide certain parts for how long to repair and supply, these are up to the manufacturer to decide.

As a result, many electronic products only need to replace a damaged part, but the part cannot be replaced. The end consumer can only discard such products.

The European Union requires manufacturers to provide up to ten years of repair support for electrical products or electronic equipment, including professional parts for repairs within ten years.

According to an EU survey, more than 60% of EU users agree to continue using the device instead of disposing it under normal circumstances, unless the device cannot be repaired and can only be discarded.

There is also a very interesting point of the “right to repair” Act, which is that the EU may mandate that manufacturers must provide software or firmware updates for devices.

It is well known that many Android devices cannot receive the latest software updates in a timely manner, and these devices may stay on older versions of Android and cannot get firmware upgrades.

As software changes, more and more software requires users to upgrade their mobile phone firmware. For example, many apps no longer support versions below Android 6.0.

If the user cannot use it, the device must be discarded even if the hardware performance of the phone is still good, unless these old devices can continue to get updates.

To reduce the obsolescence of electronic products, the European Union has also incorporated the “right to update obsolete software” into the maintenance bill, which may force manufacturers to issue firmware updates.

Although the EU’s approach seems a bit radical, it is not a bad thing for consumers. After all, timely firmware updates can extend the life of mobile phones.

Many details from the drafting of the “right to repair” bill since last fall are still under discussion, but the EU hopes to complete the maintenance bill by 2021 and implement it in a timely manner.

However, the details such as forcing manufacturers to release software updates, which may be of concern to everyone, are unclear for the time being, after all, this requires the manufacturer’s participation.

Most manufacturers now implement lock bootloaders to prohibit consumers from flashing phones. Once the manufacturers decide to stop issuing firmware updates, these phones will eventually face the abandonment.

Via: XDA