Prosenjit Sarkar
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Recently the Department of Consumer Affairs has set up a committee led by Nidhi Khare, who will be responsible for the framework for “ Right to Repair “.
It is actually based on Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Repair Act 2012 (USA), which states that any manufacturer selling a car must provide the proper documentation and information to the buyer, as a result, anyone will be able to repair their vehicle.
Right to repair – An Indian customer’s perspective.
Under this proposal, the Government of India will set up a framework under which a consumer will be able to repair and modify their electronic equipment from anywhere they wish without paying heavy fees.
The big multinational companies will provide the necessary information for the same. As a result, there will be a massive increase in job opportunities.
Right to repair- Benefits
- Big tech companies such as Apple, Samsung, etc will have to provide the relevant information about the product they are selling and the process to repair that product both from the authorized service centers and third-party technicians.
- Customers will not be compelled to go to the authorized service center and pay heavy fees. (For Eg: Apple charges a premium of about 30000-40000 INR to repair the display of its flagship devices, with is about 30% – 40% of the original price. )
- As a result, It will heavily increase the business of small repair shops.
- There will be increased competition in order to keep the repair cost low and hence the consumers will be directly benefitted.
- It will help reduce the massive amount of electrical waste. (Apple claims that they are doing so by removing the charging brick from the content of the device’s box).
- All parts, equipment, manuals, and diagnostic tools will be provided to the third-party technicians so the consumers can have peace of mind about their device.
Right to repair: sectors of implementation
- Mobile phones/tablets/laptops/headphones.
- Automobile and related equipment.
- Any kind of electronic goods which can be repaired.
Right to repair: Necessity
Monopolies such as Apple, Samsung etc charge a lot of money to the consumers in order to repair even a slight fault in a device, beside that the service network in India is of scattered type and is not available to each and every person readily. In order to deal with that problem and stop the monopolies of big multinational companies and safeguard the rights of consumers, this law is very much needed. It is high time that we must take such measures so that we can decrease the amount of electrical waste, which harms nature in a devastating way.
Right to repair: Global Presence
Way before India, countries like The United States of America, The United Kingdom, The European Union etc have already adopted the “Right to Repair” law. Australia has repair cafes that are basically free meeting places where a lot of engineers, technicians, and consumers gather and hence sharing of knowledge, and repair of devices takes place.
Its high time that India must act in the right direction and implement those laws for safeguarding the rights of consumers and decrease the electrical waste generation in our country.
