They're free to purchase second-hand phones, if they want to buy an even cheaper device. When most phones are supported for 7 years instead of 2-3, the market of second-hand phones that are still supported will expand greatly.
Beyond just battery flash slowly wears out over time, degrading performance. Based on my Nexus 6 I would love it if the EU dictated batteries must be replaceable, but you need an overabundance of flash so a few years in there are still cells left to balance wear across.
The Nexus 6 automatically throttled performance based on battery left, but at some point the battery wore out to the point that less than 1/2 an hour of use got you below that threshold. After that the phone was very laggy and frustrating to use. No way anyone would want 5 years of that experience, updates or not.
Second-hand phones will massively go up in price if this happens. Not a solution.
Not even going into the problems with second-hand phones and that poor people de-factor have zero legal rights as they don't have the money to take sellers to court.
Instead of buying a 1-2 year old phone with 1 remaining year of support, the legislation would allow users to choose to buy a 6 year old phone with 1 remaining year of support. Since new phone releases apply downward price pressure on older phone models each year, the 6 year old model would most likely be much cheaper under the new legislation than the 1-2 year old model is currently. Budget-conscious users would appreciate having the 6 year old model available as a more affordable and equally viable choice.
Many used phone sellers/marketplaces offer extended warranties on second-hand phones, which risk-averse buyers should purchase.
> Not even going into the problems with second-hand phones and that poor people de-factor have zero legal rights as they don't have the money to take sellers to court.
This thread is about EU law.
In EU you don't have to take sellers to court, you just have to nag customer protection authorities until they do.
It might take some time: Google still hasn't gotten a massive fine for abusing its position in search and ads to kill competing browsers despite my reports but I will not be surprised when it happpens.
PS: come on guys and gals and do write to your local competition authorities. The sooner we can get this sorted the better.
