How the Right to Repair rule can cut short your visit to the service centre

The tech and auto industry expects the 'Right to Repair' policy to provide recognition to the largely unorganised third-party repairs sector through increased availability of original spares

Even as Centre announced that it is working to come out with a framework on ‘Right to Repair’, stakeholders from the re-commerce and repairs industry have called upon the government to avail original spare parts in the open market to help mainstream third-party repairs and reduce the monopoly of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the sector.

Last week, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs said a holding on repair processes infringes the customer's "right to choose". The ministry said consumers should be able to repair and modify the product with ease and at a reasonable cost, without being captive to the whims of manufacturers for repairs.

The department has since formed a committee to develop a comprehensive framework to allow customers to self and third-party repair of products. The industry expects the 'Right to Repair' policy would provide recognition to the largely unorganised third-party repairs sector through the increased availability of original spare parts in the open market in India.

First for India, industry experts said this is a much needed reform in the country.

Mandeep Manocha, founder and CEO, Cashify, said the shortage of original spare parts has remained an obstacle in the repair and reuse of electronic products.

“Today, most of the OEMs keep their spare part value chain or supply chain very close to their hearts. It is very difficult to get access to the original spare parts,” he said, adding that once the right to repair comes in, the spare parts of the gadgets would be readily available.

According to a latest survey by LocalCircles, every one in two Indian households has less than five-year-old devices or appliances not repaired due to prohibitive costs.

The survey also found that 43 per cent of the households that participated had three or more devices such as laptop, desktop, smartphone, printer, tablet, etc. that were less than five years old and needed service or repair.

The objective of 'Right to Repair' is to empower consumers and product buyers in the local market, said the report, adding this would help to increase the trade between the original-equipment manufacturers and third-party buyers and sellers.

“The government should make a mandate that if you sell 100 phones, X percentage of those phones’ spare parts should be readily available in the market. It shouldn’t only be available in the authorized service centres run by the OEMs, but should be freely available in the market at the right price as well," said Manocha.

“The local ecosystem for third-party repairing in the country is pretty large, it is just that it is not recognised or not authorised because they can’t access good quality spare parts. Everything boils down to the availability of original spare parts at the right price,” the CEO added.

Manocha said that the supplying of original spare parts in the open market would also give an impetus to electronic manufacturers to produce more in India, as the consumption would increase. “Today most of the third-party parts are being imported from China,” he added.

The electronic OEMs, including Dell, HP and Lenovo did not respond to the questions till the time of going to the press.

Vivek Sharma, founder and CEO, Fixcraft, an on-demand car repairing company, said sourcing genuine parts made it a tough job to repair cars from all the brands.

Sharma said while most OEMs control the accessibility of the parts, the Supreme Court had mandated that they were made available in the open market through authorised distributors and not only at the dealerships.

“For OEMs, which have a large market share, setting up individual distribution networks makes sense, but it becomes economically unviable for players with smaller volumes," he added.

There is always a fear in the consumer's mind whether genuine parts are being used in the car or not, especially when the repair is carried out outside of OEM dealerships, Sharma said, adding that 'Right to Repair' will eliminate some of these doubts.

Another reason for the ministry to develop such a framework is to reduce e-waste in the country.

According to the United Nations' Global E-waste Monitor 2020, a record 53.6 million metric tonnes (mt) of electronic waste was generated worldwide in 2019, up 21 per cent in just five years. The report has also predicted global e-waste – discarded products with a battery or plug – will reach 74 mt by 2030, almost a doubling of e-waste in just 16 years.

The movement has picked up globally as well, with the UK becoming a recent adoptee of the rule. But as expected, tech companies as well as auto firms globally, have opposed it on the grounds of safety risk.

The New York state legislature has passed the ‘right to repair’ bill that will require digital electronic manufacturers to make parts, tools, information and software available to consumers and independent repair shops.