A new French government decree came into effect this week, which will force manufacturers to inform customers how long they expect mobile phone, television, or any other appliance to last.
This is a plan that is aimed at fighting planned obsolence, when manufactures design a product with a limited lifespan, so that consumers have to replace the item sooner.
France has become the first country to pass this law, which it hopes that will end the practice of planned obsolence.
The law doesn’t state that products have to have a minimum lifespan of X amount of years, but forces manufactures to be more honest about the expected lifespan and also they have to buyers how long spare parts for the appliance will continue to be produced, so that customers can make an informed choice before buying it.
The vendor is then required to inform the buyer, in writing and failure to do so will result in fines up to 15,000 euros.
These kind of measures can only be a good thing for the consumers in my opinion as manufacturers will now be more likely to try and increase its quality control and make appliances last longer as they all try and out do each other.
