By now we’ve all heard about the Right To Repair and that new EU legislation has come into force that the UK has its own version of that came into force on July 8th this year. It seems Miele and others may not be complying or, if they are it is not in the spirit of the law.

 As reported by the BBC here (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57665593) UK legislation has come into force that effectively tells makers that parts and information to repair must be made available.

However, it has been brought to our attention that not all makers are acting as they perhaps should and in some cases most assuredly not in the spirit of the new legislation with some appearing to erect yet more barriers to protect their monopolistic practices.

One that has been brought to our attention is a brand that we have had to criticise many times over the years, Miele.

From trade sources, we are led to believe that Miele is halting or banning the sale of spare parts and consumables from any third party, in other words, they are limiting the sale of spare parts and so forth to being from Miele themselves only. Or whatever, it doesn’t matter as access is in some way being restricted from the way it looks to us and others.

They can then charge owners of Miele products whatever they wish with no competition.

As we understand it, third-party spares suppliers cannot access or sell spare parts, technical information, spare parts information, or pretty much any information in a bid to drive all spare parts business back to Miele alone or their selected partners.

Of course, the old tropes about consumer safety, specialist knowledge, and so on will always be rolled out but, for us and most consumers, this is complete nonsense. Merely smoke and mirrors to sustain protectionist or monopolistic practices.

We reached out to Miele for comment and got back the following statement:

“Miele, very strongly refutes the untrue allegations you plan to publish in your article regarding Right To Repair.

In particular, it is incorrect to state Miele is banning the sale of spare parts via any third party spare parts supplier, in other words they are limiting the sale of spare parts and so forth to being from Miele themselves only. Of course, Miele complies with all Right To Repair legislation and will continue to do so, in the EU as well as in the UK.

Please be advised, that in the event of false statements being published, Miele expressly reserves the right to take further legal action.”

We can only report on what we find and while Miele say this yet at least two major trade suppliers have had to halt sales, and we have proof of course just in case Miele does wish to push back legally on us publishing merely what’s going on. But the letter does not tell us where or how to obtain parts or information on them and for the time being, we can’t buy them. With one major supplier stating on most Miele parts “special authorization is needed to order this item” which would seem to disagree with what Miele is saying here.

We’d presume from this response that Miele doesn’t want people to know, the full letter we will make downloadable as we’ve not got anything to hide. You can view the letter in full here

Most of the trade and public don’t give one iota about the technicalities, all they want to be able to do is buy a part, a pack of bags, or whatever they don’t care about the politics of it.

Of course, Miele is not the only manufacturer that plays such games.

Another recent example is Bertazzoni UK who has denied access to their online portal to even look up part numbers or access wiring diagrams.

We reached out to Bertazzoni UK to get access and the trail of emails beyond the initial inquiry we will make available as downloadable items below, it makes for a very interesting read and, as you can see there are few actual answers in the responses and certainly no reasons given that could justify the policies.

So, we reached out to Bertazzoni Italy for their comments and they responded with:

Nothing!

Not even the courtesy of a reply.

So, you can see what was sent and replies here and here.

The Weakest Excuses

All the time the same, tired old excuses are trotted out by pretty much every manufacturer or brand owner.

Virtually none hold any water at all and all are easily dismissed as poor at best, some bordering on just utter nonsense.

But the real kicker, as in the case of both Miele and Bertazzoni as examples here is often along the lines of “We don’t want unskilled people working on our appliances, our brand”.
Well, here’s some facts that are ignored in that opinion.

Firstly, the appliances are not “yours”, they are owned by the people that bought them and they have the right to do as they please with them once out of warranty, repair themselves, have whoever they choose to repair, insure it with whoever they please. That is not up to the manufacturer at all. In our view, the manufacturers have absolutely no right whatsoever to dictate to a buyer what people do and don’t do.

The brand is out there in the public domain, manufacturers put them there and pay good money to promote those to sell goods to people, just because a branded ™’d name is on the box does not afford the maker any rights over other people’s property, that they have been paid to provide.

Saying that withholding information or erecting barriers to that only serves to make many of the things they cite as problems worse, not better.

For example, almost all reputable repairers if they can’t source parts, parts info and basic tech such as fault codes, etc will simply refuse to work on that brand, it’s not worth the hassle. So, if the owner doesn’t wish to pay the often exorbitant manufacturer costs to repair they will use whoever they can find and, that may well not be the best choice as all the good repairers won’t touch it.

Hardly achieving what manufacturers often claim it will.

The Bottom Line

For us, these are practices that must end. Now.

If you as a consumer buy and pay for a product, you own it, it is yours. The maker should not be allowed to prevent or restrict your choice of where, how, and what you do with it beyond the warranty period.

Within the warranty period, fair enough, they state what the terms are and that’s fine but beyond that, all the choice should be the owners, not the manufacturer’s and it is, in our view, completely immoral to force, effectively or directly, owners of products down one path only through controlling who can and can’t supply parts or gain repair information.

And, we haven’t even touched upon the environmental harm such practices cause.

We believe that makers should be called out for this, buyers should be made aware of the way in which makers and brands operate and support the products that they have sold and that should form a part of an informed buying decision.

So with that in mind, working with our partners in the UK and across the EU we intend to highlight how each operates in this respect and openly share our findings on each as we go and, publish what we find.

Hopefully, pressure from potential buyers buying from more open and sustainable brands will bring about the changes that are required for a more open, repairable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly future.

Resources

Home

https://www.whitegoodstradeassociation.org

https://therestartproject.org

https://www.ifixit.com/Right-to-Repair/Intro

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56340077

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2021/06/new-right-to-repair-laws-introduced-what-do-they-actually-mean-for-you/