Infrastructure Briefing — October 5, 2025
The EU Right to Repair Directive approved in April 2024 obliges manufacturers to provide refurbishable parts, repair information, and price transparency, tightening lifecycle policies for enterprise hardware shipped into the bloc.
What happened: The European Parliament approved the Right to Repair Directive on 23 April 2024, requiring manufacturers to make spare parts, repair information, and standardized cost transparency available for products such as servers and network equipment for at least several years after purchase.Parliament press release
Why it matters: Enterprises importing hardware into the EU must demonstrate refurbish-and-reuse pathways rather than disposal. OEM RMA programs now need published parts availability windows, authorised repair channels, and documented diagnostic access that can be audited.
Actions for lifecycle managers
- Map SKUs to retention rules. Inventory EU-bound configurations and record the minimum part-availability periods and diagnostic tools required under the directive.Council agreement
- Update RMA playbooks. Publish expected turnaround times, pricing ceilings, and data-wiping requirements for returns and refurbished units to satisfy the directive's transparency obligations.
- Expand certified repair partners. Pre-negotiate regional providers that can perform in-warranty repairs using OEM tooling and parts to avoid backlog as demand for refurbishment increases.
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