Photo by Fotografia Lui Vlad on Unsplash (illustrative)
On 20 June 2025, new European Union ecodesign rules began to apply to smartphones and tablets placed on the EU market. Manufacturers must now build devices that last longer, keep spare parts and repair manuals available for years, and show a repairability grade on a new energy label.
Key facts
Batteries must keep at least 80% of their original capacity after 800 full charge cycles.
Key spare parts must be delivered within 5 to 10 working days and stay available for at least 7 years after a model stops being sold.
Operating system updates must continue for at least 5 years after the last unit of a model is sold.
A new label grades repairability from A (most repairable) to E, alongside energy class, battery endurance and drop resistance.
Why it matters
Fraunhofer IZM, which helped design the label, expects the rules to stretch the average smartphone's life from about 3 years to just over 4. The European Commission estimates they will save consumers around 20 billion euros by 2030 and cut related energy use by about a third.
Worth noting
Enforcement is lagging: a September 2026 review by iFixit and Right to Repair Europe found that about 80% of registered smartphone models still lacked the required repair information. Advocates also note that software 'part pairing' can still block independent repairs.