The repair bonus, aimed at encouraging individuals to have their defective products repaired, will be “simplified, expanded and increased” from January 1, the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu announced on Friday. In order to simplify procedures, the number of accredited repairers, currently 4,300, will be “doubled next year”, and remote repairs will be included in the system, indicated Mr. Béchu. In addition, the bonus will be expanded with the addition of 24 new eligible products, making a total of 73. The “accidental breakage” criterion will gradually become eligible, such as a smartphone screen or a broken washing machine handle.
To begin with, 25 euros will be deducted from the consumer’s bill when they have their broken smartphone screen repaired. Finally, the bonus will be increased by five euros on “more than twenty products” and doubled for five others: washing machines, dishwashers, dryers, televisions and vacuum cleaners. The bonus will also be increased by 20% when parts from the circular economy are used for the repair. All of these measures aim to “demonstrate that we cannot achieve economic growth by betting on planned obsolescence,” said Mr. Béchu in a speech in Lorsgey (Côte-d’Or), a historic factory. of the French group Seb, leader in small domestic equipment.
“You are the living demonstration that we can reconcile economic growth and sustainability,” said Mr. Béchu during the 70th anniversary of the iconic Cocotte-Minute, invented in 1953 by this family group from a tinker based in this village north of Dijon. Seb prides itself on having “repairability in its DNA”, being confident of being able to restart devices that are “up to more than 40 years old”, according to its CEO Thierry de La Tour d’Artaise.
“It must be admitted, brands have voluntarily prevented the repair of their products,” recalled Mr. Béchu. “It is not normal that, in two thirds of cases, we throw things away. It is not normal that we buy 16 million smartphones and only repair a million,” he added. In addition to repair, Roland Lescure, Minister Delegate in charge of Industry, also present at Seb, announced the establishment of a “reparability” bonus, i.e. the establishment of a system already provided for in the anti-repair law. waste for a circular economy (Agec) voted in February 2020. “Repairable” products will benefit from a bonus of 10 to 40 euros to be deducted from their purchase price while “non-repairable” products will be subject to a penalty of the same amount to be added to the invoice.
