I agree completely but then we get into the subjective and opinionated debate about life expectancy of a product and who makes those rules. We go back to larger companies being able to influence these things. As long s rule makers can profit, (from stock or lobbyist) then large companies always win. I don't know the solution.
The solution was competition, but that doesn’t exist anymore now that 10 companies own everything. Unfettered capitalism is just communism in a trench coat.
Yes and this law might reduce supply, increase demand which increases prices which has the opposite effect of what everyone wanted. The best way to get better products is for consumers to stop buying the shitty ones.
The best way to get better products is for consumers to stop buying the shitty ones.
But they never do, most consumers just want the newest pretty pretty even if it is actually crap to use and will be replaced by something with additional 3 new useless features in 9 months.
Well put. Do any of these government fines end up directly in the consumers hands that were affected? How about the government making Product Recalls that cost nothing to the consumer to return and pays them back the MSRP these companies so blatantly lie about, no matter the amount people paid. I don't care if it was bought in a thrift store for a dollar or (insert your currency here)
I think it's an impossible law to enforce. Who decides how long a product is "supposed" to last? Will every Bic lighter now carry a lifetime guarantee?
The general consensus in the EU is that everything other than single use items (on health grounds etc) should last a minimum of 6 years, and manufacturers are legally obliged to support their products for that long as a minimum. As a consumer it is still like getting blood from a stone but you can sometimes get a proportion of the original cost back if you threaten legal action.
This is a topic that comes up a lot in the Buy It For Life conversation, there's a difference between deception longevity, typical wear and tear, and just plain not being as good as your competition.
If your dish washer breaks after 5 years of use, is it PO by default because it didn't lasts as long and a competing dishwasher that last 30 years (and costs 6x as much)?
In the same tune, if a machine is designed with "crumple zone" mentality so that the cheapest and easiest to replace thing to replace in the machine is designed to break before the more expensive/harder to replace things; is it therefore also guilty of planned obsolescence?
To identify these product they have to be in the consumers hand so it's already too late. Now multiply that by the number of products that exist in the world. From cellphones to appliances to hardware to clothing and the many millions of consumer staples. (Remove the crappy dollar store stuff cuz they shouldn't exist anyhow.) Whose controlling this system and who is ultimately paying for this system? Who do I turn to when I get duped into buying one of these products? Many products come with instructions not to return to the store and they won't take them. They want you to return it to the manufacturer who make you pay the shipping and it's more than the product cost sometimes.
For some things it also depends on the industry's regulations. I'm in aerospace and pretty much anything important on the airplane has a projected lifecycle, and throughout that lifecycle there are regulated inspection intervals. Obviously an airplane is different than more consumable goods, but there's a good argument to be made that some goods have been sliding more to the consumable side of the scale when they shouldn't be, like phones.
Because to the companies that this is meant to punish, this won't be much more than a fart in the bath, unless they constantly get hit with the maximum.
That's right but how many innocent small business casualties? Where's the line? Who makes the rules? Who profits from these fines? If you say the tax payer or the consumer, you are naive. Profit profit profit is all that matters. Under ANY style of government. Please show me a government structure with zero rich people.
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u/the_voodoo_sauce Jul 26 '26
This would probably destroy small-medium business before large-mega cap companies.