Display faults on online sales sites, ineffective mode of calculation … The consumer association points to the shortcomings of the tool put in place in January 2021 to encourage the purchase of repairable products and fight against the wastage.
Le Monde with AFP
At this point, the promises are not held. UFC-What to choose Pin, in a report published Tuesday, December 14, the relevance of the repair index, supposed to fight against waste by encouraging the purchase of more repairable products.
The index, set up in January 2021, fails by its calculation mode, as in its distributor dissemination fault, estimates the UFC, which “pulls the alarm” and “requires a reform “From this instrument” so that it can be a useful tool “for buyers. “Yet welcome, it is, in the state, far from being relevant”, points the association.
The UFC analyzed 330 products and nine online sales sites: a large majority of sellers do not meet their obligation to display the index, and only 42% of the products have the visible logo near the price. Specifically, Leroy-Merlin is 100% or 95% baker, when others like Amazon are 22% or 0% for Carrefour.
The index, in the form of a rating of 1 to 10, must be affixed to five types of equipment, chosen by the public authorities as pilot products:
- washing machine
- TV
- Smartphone
- Portable Computers
- lawn mower.
The goal is to encourage manufacturers to ecodesign by manufacturing easily repairable products. Except that “the index thus seems to have been built to give manufacturers an artificial satisfaction”, criticizes the UFC: the Note is based on criteria each weighing the same weight (documentation, ease of disassembly, availability of spare parts, price …), to the detriment of determining criteria such as the availability of spare parts.
The purchase of ‘A new product remains the majority option
What “results in absurdity”, with for example smartphones and TVs very well noted when they are, however, in terms of parts availability, note the UFC again. The Association requires the public authorities to review the method of building this note and to impose the display for sellers (with the rating grid directly accessible to consumers).
The challenge is not slim: today, only one-third of the 16 million largely broke down appliances each year are repaired, and the redemption of a new product remains the majority option, Raises the UFC. This rate is similar for all electrical and electronic devices.
The objective of the state, with this index, is to reach 6 0% of the repair rates of electrical and electronic products. The tool must be in a second time extended to other products, and even become a “durability index” from 2024.