UK Government Condemns Apple's Built-in Obsolescence, Looks At Right To Repair


In a wide-ranging report which also called out Amazon and eBay for failing to deal properly with eWaste, the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee has been critical of Apple for the way it builds obsolescence into its products and does everything possible to prevent their repair. The report notes that in most cases it sets its own repair costs so high that it is more economical for customers to buy new rather than accept the repair.

Apple takes several shots from the Audit Committee. Firstly its use of glue inside products to prevent repairs by third parties, creating a monopoly of repair by refusing to supply parts to repairers and the use of non standard screws to prevent access to internals completely.

Apple's history of bricking devices which have been repaired outside of its own service centres gets mentioned too - something which still appears to be the case on the iPhone 12 introduced this year.

Apple also gets called out for batterygate - deliberately reducing iPhone performance in a bid to increase rates of replacement.

The problem doesn't end once the product has been replaces either.

Those products are ending up in landfills or being sent abroad and the recycling process often loses materials which are difficult or expensive to replace; and in extreme circumstances drive conflict in a bid to realise the profits from their extraction.

The report makes three recommendations. Firstly that the government take action to restrict built in obsolescence by extending minimum warranty periods and giving the right to repair legal standing. Secondly by investing in better and more efficient recycling methods in order to ensure that most, if not all, recyclable material is recovered from products at the end of their useful lives; and finally by forcing online retailers to follow the same eWaste guidelines which brick and mortar stores have to meet.

The UK Government has two months to review the report and decide which of its recommendations will be followed up. Timing is unfortunate as it seems likely the government will still be trying (and likely failing) to address the problems of the Coronavirus pandemic by the time January rolls around.

Comments