How many products in your portfolio are designed to be fixed rather than replaced? The EU’s new Right‑to‑Repair directive is no longer a policy debate — it’s a business reality that will reshape product strategy, supply chains and the way product teams define value.
Why repairability is now a product strategy, not a compliance checkbox
The directive from the European Commission and the European Parliament establishes common rules to promote repair and extend product lifetimes. See the European Commission’s overview of the Directive on repair of goods and the legal text at Eur‑Lex. For product leaders this is not just a regulatory burden: it’s a signal that customer expectations and market economics are changing.
Three immediate shifts are worth noting:
- Customer value expands — repairability becomes a buying criterion for sustainability‑minded consumers; businesses that ignore it risk reputational and commercial damage.
- Cost and margin dynamics change — spare parts, repair networks and extended warranties affect unit economics in ways product teams must account for.
- Data and software matter — repairability in modern devices includes software access, diagnostics and secure update mechanisms.
What the EU rules actually require product teams to think about
The directive creates obligations such as giving consumers access to repair, making spare parts available at a reasonable cost and extending certain warranty protections for repaired goods. Read the Reuters summary of how the EU agreed the rules here, and the civil society analysis from Right to Repair Europe here.
For product leaders that translates into practical requirements:
- Publish repair information and diagnostics in accessible formats.
- Make spare parts and tools available to professional repairers — and often to consumers — at reasonable prices.
- Design modules so common failure points can be replaced without specialist equipment.
- Balance openness with cybersecurity and intellectual property rights.
Real-world examples: what success looks like
There are established examples of repair‑forward products. Fairphone, the European phone maker, has created a commercially viable business around modular, repairable design and transparent supply chains. Independent communities and services such as iFixit provide repair manuals and parts marketplaces that show consumer demand for fixability.
These are not niche moves. The market response to repairable electronics suggests a clear product opportunity: differentiate through longevity, provide paid services around repairs, and capture after‑sales revenue while delivering genuine sustainability benefits.
How product teams should reorganise to deliver repairable products
Repairability requires cross‑functional coordination: design, hardware engineering, software, service and commercial teams must align. Consider the following practical steps:
- Make repairability a measurable outcome: add repair success rates, part availability and mean time to repair to your product KPIs.
- Design for disassembly: mandate modularity for components with high failure rates and standard fasteners to reduce repair time.
- Price spare parts and services deliberately: avoid punitive spare‑part pricing that drives consumers to replace rather than repair.
- Build an authorised and community repair ecosystem: certify independent repairers, publish manuals, and create a marketplace for parts and labour.
- Integrate secure diagnostic APIs: provide authenticated diagnostic endpoints for repair shops while safeguarding customer privacy and device security.
Organisational changes that stick
Successful companies make repairability part of the product discovery process. Include repair cost modelling in business cases, and ensure product trios (product, design, engineering) run live experiments with prototype spare‑part economics and repair workflows. This moves repair from the realm of compliance to a source of competitive advantage.
Legal and technical guardrails: IP, cybersecurity and aftermarket risks
The directive intersects with intellectual property and cybersecurity. Legal teams will want to protect trade secrets while meeting the obligation to supply repair information. Your security team must ensure that allowing third‑party diagnostics or parts does not open an attack surface.
A practical approach balances:
- Tiered access to diagnostics (basic public diagnostics; higher level access for certified repairers).
- Digital signatures and authenticated parts to avoid fraudulent components while allowing legitimate replacements.
- Clear contracts and certification programmes for repair partners.
Quick roadmap: from policy to product
Start with a focused, 90‑day programme:
- Run a repairability audit for your top 5 SKUs (identify common failures and repair costs).
- Publish basic repair manuals and part catalogues for those SKUs.
- Pilot a certified independent repairer scheme in one market.
- Adjust pricing models to reflect longer lifecycles and after‑sales revenue potential.
These are operational moves product teams can achieve quickly. They also buy time to redesign future generations with repairability in mind.
What I would bet on
Regulation often accelerates trends that were already underway. The EU directive formalises what many consumers and businesses want: longer‑lasting products and transparent service options. For CPOs and product leaders, that means reframing product success to include longevity, repair economics and an integrated service layer.
Acting now turns a compliance exercise into a differentiator. Start with small pilots, measure outcomes and scale the capabilities that show commercial and customer value. Repairable products are not a sacrifice: they are an opportunity to create sustainable advantage.
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