EU Prepares "Right to Repair" Legislation to Fight Short Product Lifespans

Re:EU Prepares "Right to Repair" Legislation to Fight Short ... by kwhitefoot on Monday July 10, 2017 @08:08AM (#14735174)

The problem is that two years is worse than what we already have in Norway so if it is harmonised we will lose out. If they set a minimum instead that would be better. At the moment brown goods (TV, computer, etc.) and white goods (fridge, washing machine and the like) are expected to last at least five years here.

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Re:EU Prepares "Right to Repair" Legislation to Fight Short ... by chki on Monday July 10, 2017 @08:25AM (#14735264)

Consumer protection in the EU generally follows the minimum approach, meaning that every state may implement higher standards and the EU wide standard is only the necessary minimum of protection. This would probably be the case with this new idea as well (at least I don't see a reason why it shouldn't).

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Re:EU Prepares "Right to Repair" Legislation to Fight Short ... by brianwawok on Monday July 10, 2017 @08:37AM (#14735333)

Why is a TV brown and a fridge white?

Never heard that kind of lingo before, it's weird ;)

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Re:EU Prepares "Right to Repair" Legislation to Fight Short ... by alephnil on Monday July 10, 2017 @08:46AM (#14735385)

I have never heard it in English either, and don't think it is a common term at all, but in Norwegian it is very common usage, where hvitevarer (white goods) is fridges, washing machines, dishwashers etc, and brunevarer (brown goods) are steroes, TVs etc.

If you go some decades back, almost all steroes and TVs were brown (typically wood or brown plastic), while dishwashers and fridges were nearly always painted white.

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Re:EU Prepares "Right to Repair" Legislation to Fight Short ... by _Codemonkeyism on Monday July 10, 2017 @09:25AM (#14735673)

Same here in Germany, wondered a lot in the 90s writing my first eCommerce shop and the business owners talked about brown and white ware.

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Re:EU Prepares "Right to Repair" Legislation to Fight Short ... by KineticLensman on Monday July 10, 2017 @09:28AM (#14735686)

The British consumer magazine 'Which?' [1] routinely uses the term 'white goods' to refer to kitchen appliances.

[1] www.which.co.uk

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Re:EU Prepares "Right to Repair" Legislation to Fight Short ... by elboru on Monday July 10, 2017 @03:53PM (#14739074)

'White goods' is common in Mexico, but I have never heard 'brown goods'

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Re:EU Prepares "Right to Repair" Legislation to Fight Short ... by kwhitefoot on Monday July 10, 2017 @09:56AM (#14735906)

Brown goods because televisions and radios used to be in wooden cases, white goods because fridges and washing machines, etc. are typically painted white.

It's ordinary British English and as someone else pointed out common in other languages too. English: brown goods, white goods = Norwegian brunevarer, hvitevarer.

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Re:EU Prepares "Right to Repair" Legislation to Fight Short ... by ghaff on Monday July 10, 2017 @08:44AM (#14735368)

I'm not familiar with the "brown goods" term but I imagine it dates to when televisions with CRTs were typically housed in wood-paneled furniture while kitchen and washing appliances were typically white.

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Re:EU Prepares "Right to Repair" Legislation to Fight Short ... by eeZah7Ux on Monday July 10, 2017 @08:55AM (#14735440)

In some countries the terms are "black" and "white" and it's not weird - you can quickly tell apart appliances.

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