Every time a new iPhone comes out, a group of technicians in the French city of Toulouse starts taking it apart. In the three years they did this, they found a device that gradually turned into a fortress. Today’s iPhones are packed with parts that can’t be repaired or replaced by anyone but an expensive Apple-accredited repair shop. And France doesn’t like that.
This is a problem that is getting worse and worse, says Alexandre Isaac, CEO of The Repair Academy, the famous research and training group that runs the workshop in Toulouse. Every time a new iPhone is released, his team finds another feature that is locked to only be used on a specific Apple device. First it was just a chip on the motherboard, he said. Then the list of parts with repair restrictions is extended to Touch ID, Face ID, and finally the battery, the screen, and the camera.
By forcing people to pay an accredited technician more than the cost of a second-hand iPhone for a simple repair job, Apple is encouraging people to throw away their devices rather than fix it, said Isaac. Repair Academy estimates an Apple-accredited technician charges customers twice as much as an independent repair shop. “A lot of people see Apple as very green,” Isaac said, referring to the solar panels at the company’s California headquarters and the recycled aluminum used to make MacBooks. The Repair Academy gathers evidence to try and prove that’s not the case. Instead, Apple engineers are actively trying to make iPhones more difficult to repair, he argued.
It’s a problem Isaac has been following for years. And now a prosecutor in Paris has decided to act. On May 15, the prosecutor announced that there will be an official investigation into allegations that Apple is pursuing a business model of planned obsolescence—a term that refers to designing a product in a way that intentionally limits its life. .
The prosecutor, who delegated the investigation to France’s Department of Competition, Consumer Affairs, and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF), has the power to fine the company and also verify whether Apple’s iPhone repair restrictions violate the law of France, as claimed by the campaigners. Over the years, France has been at the forefront of the right to recovery movement, introducing the first recovery scoring system in Europe. But this case reinforces the country’s willingness to take on Apple and the way it builds its products.
“France is pushing the right to repair in ways that haven’t been done before,” said Elizabeth Chamberlain, director of sustainability at iFixit, a US group that campaigns for the right to repair. “This is the first time we have seen any movement against planned obsolescence by matching parts at a national level.” Apple did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. The company recently published its 2023 environmental progress report.
