To comply with a new law that came into force at the beginning of the year in France, Apple added “Repairability” scores to products available on its French website. These ratings indicate how easy it is to disassemble and repair a device, as well as the availability of replacement components and instruction manuals … and you wouldn’t know? The scores are very bad.
And the judges say … At first glance, the best that Apple has to offer is a 7/10 rating for some MacBooks. Other devices did not do so well. Let’s dive into the embarrassment, shall we?
As reported in The VergeThe entire line of Apple’s iPhone 12 achieved only 6/10, which is honestly much better than the previous iteration of the device, which scored 4.5 and 4.6 respectively. The Series 12 gained that small leap in rank due to the cheaper costs of replacement parts for phones, as well as being easier to dismantle. As for the varied MacBooks, you can expect a repair score between 5.6 and 7. Totally worth the extra money, right?
Very late, but still in his childhood – The new Reparability Index came into effect as part of France’s efforts to reduce electronic waste. According to a monitoring organization, the country repaired only about 40% of its devices when needed, often choosing to simply throw them away and buy new ones. France intends to increase that figure to 60 percent by 2026, although fines for defaulting companies will not start to take effect until next year.
It bodes well, at least in Europe – France’s reparability boost comes alongside similar legislation across the European Union. At the end of last year, the EU began work on a major “Right to Repair” bill that aims to help consumers extend the life of their electronics and other devices, with the aim of moving the law forward at the end of 2021.
In the meantime, here in the good old United States … well, you can probably guess how it’s going, especially when Apple in America tends to destroy MacBook Pros batteries for no good reason. Around that time, last year, the tech giant also made it incredibly difficult for small businesses looking to offer independent repairs. Oh, and then there’s the whole thing that Apple supposedly killed its own SSD … We should be getting some tips from the EU, that’s what we’re trying to say.