Apple has added iPhone and MacBook repair scores to its online store in France to comply with a new French law that came into effect this year. MacGeneration reports that the classification takes into account features such as how easily a device can be disassembled and the availability of repair manuals and spare parts. Links to the final score of each product, with details on how they were calculated, are available on this support page.
Ratings for Apple products vary between products and generations. The iPhone 12 lineup, for example, all has scores of six out of 10, while last year’s iPhone 11s score lower between 4.5 and 4.6. According to the detailed score review, the improvement is due to the newer iPhones being easier to disassemble than the previous year’s models, and spare parts being cheaper compared to the cost of the phone itself. There is less spread between the company’s different MacBook models, with scores ranging from 5.6 to 7.
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The recoverability scores are required by a new French law that came into effect on January 1 with new anti-waste legislation. A website that catalogs scores from different manufacturers notes that last year only 40 percent of electrical appliances in France were repaired after breaking down. The cabinet wants to increase this to 60 percent within five years by using the scores to inform consumers and pressure manufacturers to make improvements.
It’s not a perfect system. Radio France Internationale notes that manufacturers calculate their own scores (albeit based on strict guidelines), and that they can get easy points with simple measures, such as providing more information about software updates.
At least one manufacturer has already made a change in response to the law. A report of it The world notes that Samsung has offered an online repair guide for the Galaxy S21 Plus, in an apparent effort to improve the repair score compared to last year’s model. The EU has used a similar initiative in the past to boost energy efficiency, where labels provided simple information on the energy consumption of household products.
France’s new law is still in its infancy, and it won’t be until 2022 before businesses are fined for failing to comply. But there is already hope that the initiative – which currently includes smartphones, laptops, TVs, washing machines and lawn mowers – could expand into more product categories in the future. And since the European Parliament voted in favor of the right to repair last year, there is hope that similar initiatives will be rolled out across the continent.