The European Commission recently published proposals for rules promoting the repair of goods. It is likely that there will be class actions in relation to right to repair. The EC has proposed that the legislation would be added into scope of the new Representative Actions Directive that would enable class action style claims where the new obligations have not been complied with. We have already seen regulatory enforcement and claims in relation to early obsolescence, which raise similar issues, and there are some very active consumer organisations promoting right to repair who may look to bring test cases. So we expect to see class actions against organisations which do not meet obligations under right to repair legislation – either following on from regulatory enforcement, or as a means to challenge the approach taken by businesses in the EU (for example, where they prioritise replacement over repair on the basis of cost).
The proposals are explained in detail in this blog by our products team.
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