What Changed in June 2025
Two EU rules kicked in together on June 20, 2025 for smartphones and tablets sold in the EU: an ecodesign regulation setting minimum durability and repairability requirements, and an energy label that puts the results on a mandatory sticker.
The headline obligations for manufacturers:
- Spare parts for 7 years after the last unit is sold, with delivery deadlines measured in days, not months
- Operating system updates for at least 5 years, with security patches required within four months of release
- Batteries that last: at least 800 full charge cycles while keeping 80% of capacity
- Drop and water resistance minimums, tested and graded
This is the strongest durability regulation any major market has applied to phones. And because manufacturers don't build separate hardware for Europe, most of it reaches everyone.
How to Read the New Label
The label looks like the one on EU fridges and washing machines, with five things worth checking before you buy:
Energy class (A-G): efficiency, the traditional part.
Repairability class (A-E): the first EU-wide standardized repair score, based on how easily the device comes apart, fastener types, spare part availability, and software support duration.
Battery endurance: rated in charge cycles. The 800-cycle floor means roughly two to three years of daily charging before noticeable degradation.
Drop resistance class and IP rating: how it survives falls and water.
If you've seen the "France Index" scores on our model pages, this is that idea graduated to 27 countries. One caveat from the transition: the EU grade ignores spare part pricing, which France's index counted. A phone can score an A while its screen costs half the phone's price.
The Loopholes iFixit Found
The regulation is good. It isn't finished. iFixit's analysis flags three gaps:
Screens got dropped. A last-minute amendment removed displays from the list of parts end users can buy directly. The single most commonly broken part now flows mainly through professional repairers.
Parts pairing isn't banned. Manufacturers must give professional repairers software access, but nothing stops them from software-locking parts to a specific device. US states have gone further: Oregon, Colorado, and Washington ban parts pairing outright.
"Fair pricing" is undefined. Parts must be available at a reasonable price, but the regulation doesn't say what reasonable means, and end users only get a short list of parts (battery, back cover, SIM tray, charger) to buy directly.
Net effect: the rules guarantee the repair ecosystem exists. They don't yet guarantee the repair is cheap or DIY-friendly.
What This Means for Your Next Phone (Anywhere)
In the EU: check the label before buying. A repairability class one grade better can mean years of extra usable life. And a phone bought after June 20, 2025 has guaranteed parts until the early 2030s, which changes the repair-or-replace math for every failure along the way.
Outside the EU: you get most of it anyway. The 5-year update floor pushed the whole market: flagship makers now advertise 7 years of updates globally. Battery endurance improvements and repair-friendly design changes ship worldwide because separate hardware lines cost more than compliance.
The rules pair with France's repair bonus, which subsidizes the repairs the ecodesign rules make possible, and the EU's 2024 right-to-repair directive, which requires member states to promote repair through 2026 and beyond.
Longer parts availability and longer updates both push the Repair Breakpoint later in a device's life. If your phone is on the fence today, that's exactly the calculation our free tool runs.