The European Union (EU) is preparing a law for companies such as Apple and Samsung to extend the battery life of their smartphones and tablets and to provide easy access to spare parts.
The EU Commission has published the draft law for the environmentally friendly design of various electronic products such as smart phones and tablets to be sustainable, energy efficient and durable.
According to the bill, the energy consumption of these products will not deteriorate after an operating system software update or a hardware update without the explicit consent of the user.
The software update will not adversely affect product performance.
There will be no performance changes as a result of rejecting an update on devices.
THEY HAVE TO SUPPLY DURING 5 YEARS
Manufacturers will have to supply 15 different spare parts such as batteries, covers, screens, cameras, buttons, speakers, microphones to professional repairers for 5 years after their devices are put on sale.
Consumers will have access to spare parts such as battery, screen, back cover, sim and memory card slot for 5 years.
Manufacturers will charge a reasonable and proportionate fee for the repair of broken devices.
The capacity of the device batteries should not fall below 83 percent after 500 full charges, and should have 80 percent capacity after a thousand full charges.
The EU Commission will finalize the regulation after collecting public opinion on the draft during September.
The EU had previously prepared legislation that would make it mandatory to use USB-C charging ports on electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets and cameras sold in member states by the autumn of 2024. (AA)