I can't get manuals and software access to fix a new car made in EU.

I don't really care that I can't fix my all-glued-up phone for <1000 EUR but I do care that I have to spend thousands on car repairs that I could do myself.

If they paid German gas and electricity prices for example while having European wages, they'd care a lot more about energy consumption, believe that.

Just ignoring energy efficiency/repairability labelling is always an option for consumers on the other hand.

> If they paid German gas and electricity prices for example while having European wages, they'd care a lot more.

I'm not so sure on this; I think environmental concerns are mainly culture driven I think, because even after all the price increases over the last decade, especially electricity is still dirt cheap compared to e.g. rent, basically everywhere.

I never said it's bad, I was just answered why the EU is pushing for this when US isn't: because in US energy affordability is not as big of an issue for consumers.

[1] https://www.energyprices.eu/electricity/germany

[2] https://spotprices.eu/de/spotprice/de1

[3] https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/Energy-Prices/Electricity/Monthly...

[4] https://www.learngermanonline.org/salaries-and-living-costs-...

[5] https://www.demandsage.com/average-us-income/

US $0.18/kWh [1]

DE $0.44/kWh [2]

EU $0.32/kWh [2]

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU000072610

[2] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...

France basically invested 40 years ago and are still reaping the spoils; I'd expect prices there to rise significantly once a majority of nuclear reactors reaches end-of-life.

From a household perspective the cost of electricity feels pretty marginal to me, anyway.

> All fuel prices include applicable Federal, State, and local taxes

Not sure about the distinction there, improving the environment and energy usage is benefitting the consumer, because the consumer is also the citizen living there

The EU bureaucracy itself is significantly lighter and more purposeful than any of the underlying individual states' bureaucracy, though that might simply be a function of youth and restricted scope.

The EU ""states rights"" (subsidiarity) is a lot stronger and more real than the corresponding structures in the US. It also doesn't really do direct enforcement - there's no EU federal police checking tablets, it's all done through national level enforcement.

That's a bizarre starting point to me. Iphone / Android made/make the world a better place. There were no laws mandating creation of them!

This belongs in that category in my opinion because it is something that costs very little in absolute terms (manufacturer has to run some tests and print some numbers that they probably already had), but it makes the whole system work better because it enables people to vote with their wallet, and gets inefficient products eliminated because people can spot them before sale.

No company would advertise a "20% below average battery lifetime" without regulation like this, which is why objectively bad devices can still get sold easily on unregulated markets.

We replaced our old tumble dryer with a modern one. The ones we had to choose from all have the energy sticker and fall into a similar band.

Choose a programme, wait a couple of hours, and bam! You can go from wet to still damp, just like that.

In other news, manufacturers game the system.

Without any energy labeling, the manufacturer has basically no incentive to provide any comparable information on energy use (especially if his device is subpar at it), and it's impossible for consumers to make informed decisions when buying (and very easy for extremely wasteful trash-products to get sold).

It also would be very appealing to just waste a ton of electricity for marginally better performance, because wasted electricity costs the device manufacturer nothing.