Activities of Mireille D'ORNANO related to 2016/2272(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on a longer lifetime for products: benefits for consumers and companies
Amendments (20)
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas the current economic model, based in large part on the manufacture of consumer goods in countries with low wage and production costs, presupposes that consumers will replace those consumer goods at frequent intervals;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas the reduced durability of products may in some cases stem from deliberate design practices ('planned obsolescence'), although it is difficult to prove that such practices are in fact deliberate;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas the decline in the quality of consumer goods, brought about by the downward pressure on manufacturing costs exerted by international competition, is the main cause of that reduced durability;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas, however, consumer behaviour is determined by the choice of products on the market and the availability of information about those products, in particular as regards their standard lifetimes, the availability of spare parts and repair costs;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas consumers' preference for replacing a product which has become prematurely obsolete or which no longer works, rather than having it repaired or modified, has led to a scarcity of professionals specialising in the repair of such products, for example in the electronics sector, whereas this scarcity is a further incentive for consumers to replace products, and whereas, in the context of the circular economy, there is an urgent need to inject fresh blood into professions whose work involves the repair of consumer goods, in order to offer consumers an alternative to simply throwing products away and replacing them;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Recital B c (new)
Recital B c (new)
Bc. whereas Sweden has been one country to introduce incentive schemes for firms operating in the consumer goods repair sector, and whereas such schemes could help to raise the profile of repair activities and ensure that they are more readily available to consumers;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Recital B d (new)
Recital B d (new)
Bd. whereas EU consumer law and national laws already make provision for statutory warranties covering the conformity of or hidden defects affecting consumer goods, and whereas making these warranties more stringent as regards their duration or the burden of proof and providing consumers with information about their enforcement can help to change the behaviour of consumers who would prefer to have a product which does not work or which is prematurely obsolete repaired rather than replace it with a new one;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Takes the view, in that connection, that some public policies, in particular at EU level, have encouraged people to throw away products which still work and replace them with products seen as environmentally friendly;
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Takes the view that the new economic model referred to above, based on the 'sharing economy', could have a positive impact on the durability of consumer goods covered by 'products as services' schemes, but that it will also have more general implications for social and economic systems and, in particular, for employment law and working conditions;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Takes the view that the Member States can introduce in their national law statutory warranties which cover, for example, the availability of spare parts essential for the usability of the product concerned;
Amendment 64 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Emphasises that the Ecodesign Directive and Directive 2010/30/EU constitute an EU legal basis for laying down standards on product durability, but points out that the two directives in question apply only to specific categories of products;
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Stresses that any EU or national legislation must incorporate a definition of product durability, which may vary depending on the type of product concerned, set realistic standard lifetimes for products (in hours or number of cycles, as appropriate) and introduce suitable measurement methods;
Amendment 70 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4c. Stresses that the process of defining a standard lifetime is made difficult by the complexity of most products and is particularly difficult in sectors in which technological progress is significant and frequent, such as the electronics sector, but that these sectors must at all costs be covered by any legislative act on product durability;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 d (new)
Paragraph 4 d (new)
4d. Stresses that the definitions of standard lifetimes must be drawn up by the EU or national authorities in cooperation with the relevant industries and consumer associations, given that the lifetimes will be legally binding, since consumers may invoke them as a form of statutory warranty;
Amendment 74 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 e (new)
Paragraph 4 e (new)
4e. Takes the view that the directives referred to above must apply to consumer goods in common use, and in particular to all heating equipment and to electronic equipment, given the speed of technological progress in that sector;
Amendment 75 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 f (new)
Paragraph 4 f (new)
4f. Stresses the importance of introducing legal provisions specifying the period during which spare parts essential to the usability of a product must be available;
Amendment 107 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Urges the Member States to amend, if necessary, their national legislation on the compulsory provision of information on the availability of essential spare parts and the expected durability of products under normal conditions of use;
Amendment 113 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Emphasises, further, that Member States can encourage repair activities by authorising consumers to use the repair service of their choosing without that affecting the validity of the statutory or contractual warranty;
Amendment 115 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 c (new)
Paragraph 7 c (new)
7c. Emphasises that making statutory warranties more stringent as regards their duration and the burden of proof can also help to persuade consumers to choose repair over replacement;
Amendment 117 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 d (new)
Paragraph 7 d (new)
7d. Emphasises, however, that the use of repair services only makes sense if consumer goods are manufactured which are qualitatively durable in the first place and that the Member States should take any appropriate measures, including tax measures, to encourage the manufacture of such goods;