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Right to repair, anti-lemon measure against “seriously defective vehicles”, guarantee of proper functioning, the law against planned obsolescence presented on 1er last June by the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, is full of promises.
The reception given to this highly anticipated bill was also warm. Add to that the announcement that the government wants to impose a universal charger for electronic devices, and consumers already felt like winners.
Now, after welcoming the government’s intention, several groups will dissect the devil in detail on Tuesday and Wednesday, while Bill 29 is subject to consultations in the National Assembly.
At Équiterre, source reduction analyst Amélie Côté compiled a list of her findings in 53 pages with her colleagues and around twenty organizations to support them. She concludes in particular that the government is depriving itself of a good idea by failing to create a sustainability index.
This is the kind of thing that comes before — well before — the consumer is faced with a tumble dryer that no longer dries after 24 and a half months or a heat pump that fails in the middle of a heatwave. “We talk a lot about obsolescence, but that’s not what will have the biggest impact. What is most important is what favors goods that last and are easily repaired,” explains M.me Side.
However, such an index had everything to be invited to the big table in this bill: it had even already been invited to discussions in previous versions of this law, proposed by opposition deputies in 2019 and in February 2023.
A “durability rating” would be indicated on a label affixed to each domestic appliance offered for sale or rental.
Established by the Bureau de normalization du Québec (BNQ), this rating could indicate an average operating time, as Équiterre continues to recommend to the government.
An experiment already in progress
A whole mountain to climb? “We would not start from scratch, since an index would already be in place in France. This is the advantage of making reforms that are already in place elsewhere and of learning what went well or less well,” says Amélie Côté.
Since January 2021, the French government has first implemented a repairability index from 1 to 10 which integrates multiple criteria: existence of documentation to repair a device, availability and price of parts, possibility of dismantling the product, complexity repair, etc.
From 2024, this rating must evolve towards the durability index, which is more encompassing, since repairability will in fact become one of the criteria. It will also be necessary to consider the reliability of the object, for example its resistance to failures and degradation, or the continuous improvement by software for the devices concerned.
“For consumers, it’s even more attractive. We ensure that the object will last longer, it will not only be repairable,” notes the Équiterre expert. Of course, it is desirable that an object can be repaired, “but above all we want a durable object to break less,” she says. Who doesn’t share their desire to buy appliances that last a lifetime?
The bill in Quebec does indeed introduce a “guarantee of proper functioning” which would allow the consumer to have broken goods automatically and free of charge repaired during the targeted period. But the time when this guarantee ends will be determined for categories of goods, for example freezers or electronic tablets, and not by brand or model of object. It will therefore not allow two identical goods to be compared with each other, note Mme Side.
Even if sustainability sometimes increases the price, Amélie Côté believes that an index would have an incentive effect for more sustainable consumption. A 2018 European Commission study showed that a citizen was almost three times more likely to choose a more sustainable product when such information was provided.
Quebecers also support the creation of such a label: 72% of respondents to a 2021 survey agreed that we put in place a logo that would identify the most durable or repairable products.