Know Your Phone

EU Consumer Repair Rules Extend Smartphone Rights, Set Battery and Software Support Standards

27 October 2026

A new EU law gives consumers a clear right to request repairs for a wide range of goods, including smartphones, mobile phones, slates and tablets. The European Parliament and Council adopted Directive (EU) 2024/1799 on Common rules promoting the repair of goods on 13 June 2024. The law, now applying across all 27 member states from 31 July 2026, significantly strengthens consumers' right to repair defective products, even after the seller's legal guarantee period has expired. Manufacturers must offer repairs on reasonable terms, and opting for repair instead of replacement extends the product's guarantee by an additional year.

Repair Rights and Obligations

From 31 July 2026, when purchasing goods for personal use, consumers have the legal right to request manufacturers repair products suffering defects that appear outside the seller's liability under the 2019 consumer rights directive. This covers products like washing machines, vacuum cleaners, smartphones, tablets and other electronics, plus other household items listed in the directive's Annex II.

If repair is possible, manufacturers must carry it out within a reasonable time and at a reasonable price, unless doing so is impossible. This is to help consumers get their faulty items fixed, with suppliers' roles clearly specified. Manufacturers must provide customers clear, accessible information about how to access repair services – details that are currently vague in many cases.

The law also gives consumers 5 days to decide between repair and replacement for goods purchased in the seller's warranty. If consumers choose repair during this window, they'll get an extended 12-month guarantee from the defect's discovery. The directive promotes transparency in both how repair services are offered and consumers' legal rights when problems crop up.

Concrete Requirements for Mobile Devices

Shoppers of smartphones, slate tablets, and other mobile communications devices also benefit from stringent EU ecodesign standards. Regulation (EU) 2023/1670, adopted 20 June 2023, specifies smartphone batteries must withstand at least 800 charge cycles while retaining 80% capacity. It's a clear effort to improve product lifespan.

For repair shops, the regulation also means critical spare parts must be available 7 years from when sales end, apart from some microelectronics. They need to arrive within 5-10 working days after being ordered. And tech companies must support the devices with operating system updates for 5 years following the release date, increasing the usable lifetime.

These rules applied from 20 June 2025, with even earlier deadlines for critical spare parts.

Scope and Limits of EU Right to Repair Rules

The new rules define clear consumer rights to get a repair when faults surface outside guarantee periods. However, they do not absolutely require products to have fully replaceable batteries. The ecodesign rules focus on battery cycle counts, software updates and spare part availability.

Some green groups had pushed for more broadly replaceable components, and such changes might come later. But this current package prioritises mandating repair service availability and minimums on spare parts, to help consumers.

Impact on Consumers and Businesses

With a definitive consumer right to repair, consumers now have a clear framework when asking companies to fix their products, and guaranteed access to support. Manufacturers must offer repair, but may choose not to if it's physically impossible. There are also mandatory rules on what support services must provide in terms of speed, information and overall availability, cutting current ambiguity.

Manufacturers will have to design for repairability, even outside servicers, at least in meeting the battery and spare part regulations. At the same time, consumers gain more protection on buying devices, in the form of clarity on available repairs, as well as an extra year of guarantee if they choose a repair.

The law comes on top of existing regulations, like a 2022 voluntary initiative that committed major mobile industry actors to extending software updates. It's part of a wider set of EU policy around promoting a circular economy.

What's not clear is how strictly the law's provisions on availability of spares and quality of repairs will be enforced. Regulatory requirements like those under 2023/1670 are in place, but facilitating their application, and the content of any fixes, is still left to the industry and markets.