Sustainability for Smartphones

geofh

The EU Sustainability Regulation (EU 2023/1670 for Smartphones, Tablets & other mobile phones) should be coming into force about now. This regulation applies to all ‘new’ products (in the above categories) released in the EU. It mandates that these devices should be properly supported for 7 years from the last date of sale (in the EU), rather than the current norm of 5 years from the earliest date of launch (e.g. in the USA).

Does anyone know if any other countries (e.g. USA or UK) plan to adopt this regulation, or will it only apply to special products released for the EU market?

DullGreyGuy

It will apply to the EU market only though may have knock on benefits to others served with the same products and shared infrastructure. 

If other countries decide to do something similar is up to them but its unlikely they'd simply copy the EU word for word but instead come up with their own version that they feel is better for their own country. 

born_again

To put this in to a Credit Card perspective.
Banks may not support a phone that old, if the O/S is not updated.

A 7 year old phone may not be hardware compatible to newer O/S. So in many ways this Regulation could stifle innovation & more secure systems. Or manufactures will simply not sell to the marketplace.

MattMattMattUK

born_again said:

To put this in to a Credit Card perspective.
Banks may not support a phone that old, if the O/S is not updated.

They already do, for Android it needs to be 9 or later which was released in 2018 and Apple tends to support hardware for eight years of iOS updates.

born_again said:

A 7 year old phone may not be hardware compatible to newer O/S. So in many ways this Regulation could stifle innovation & more secure systems. Or manufactures will simply not sell to the marketplace.

At least for Android and iOS now they are both on 64 bit architectures there is nothing that likely on the tech horizon that would cause that within the next seven years. Google and Samsung have already committed to seven years of updates for their devices, others appear to be following. 

I expect for mainstream brands it will happen, but for the random Chinese manufacturers it might be an issue, but they will probably not be able to enforce anything against them anyway.

gt94sss2

geofh said:

Does anyone know if any other countries (e.g. USA or UK) plan to adopt this regulation, or will it only apply to special products released for the EU market?

The UK passed the Product Security and Telecommunication Infrastructure Act in 2022

One of the results of the PSTI is that since April 2024, manufacturers of all phones sold in UK must publish a Statement of Compliance stating the minimum period of time they will be support a phone.

Some of the large manufacturers info:

https://regulatoryinfo.apple.com/ukpsti

https://news.samsung.com/uk/notice-new-uk-product-security-and-telecommunications-infrastructure-psti-law

https://www.mi.com/uk/support/policy/psticompliance/

It makes little sense for manufacturers to support phones for less time in the UK compared to the EU.

DullGreyGuy

gt94sss2 said:

It makes little sense for manufacturers to support phones for less time in the UK compared to the EU.

Because of the DMA iOS is diverging in the EU compared to the rest of the world, unless other countries bring in similar rules on Apple having to support third party app stores etc it may be less sensible in the future to peg the UK to the EU. 

To me the differences happen at the end of life, as you run your stocks down of components for old devices as the limit approaches you'd presumably prioritise those legal jurisdictions where you must maintain parts over those where its discretionary. 

Nasqueron

MattMattMattUK said:

born_again said:

To put this in to a Credit Card perspective.
Banks may not support a phone that old, if the O/S is not updated.

They already do, for Android it needs to be 9 or later which was released in 2018 and Apple tends to support hardware for eight years of iOS updates.

born_again said:

A 7 year old phone may not be hardware compatible to newer O/S. So in many ways this Regulation could stifle innovation & more secure systems. Or manufactures will simply not sell to the marketplace.

At least for Android and iOS now they are both on 64 bit architectures there is nothing that likely on the tech horizon that would cause that within the next seven years. Google and Samsung have already committed to seven years of updates for their devices, others appear to be following. 

I expect for mainstream brands it will happen, but for the random Chinese manufacturers it might be an issue, but they will probably not be able to enforce anything against them anyway.

The criteria is based on the end of support for the software - if it's not getting security patches then it will be blocked eventually. 9 was end of support 4/1/22 and I would imagine most banks will be sunsetting support for 10 (security patches ended in March 2023) and 11 (final security release was February 2024)

Google and Samsung (and maybe others) are now typically doing 6 years, Apple may do longer though not always 8 years - the XS / XS Max came out in September 2018 and XR came out in October 2018 and iOS 18 is the last that they will get - which came out in September 2024 - so 6 years for both