France Gives Up on its Sustainability Index for Computer Phones

Created by the Fight Against Waste and for a Circular Economy Act, the repairability index is supposed to be gradually replaced by a sustainability index. Different regulatory texts were drafted to embody it, including one on "multifonction mobile phones"1. The latter has been dropped by France after the European commission issued a detailed opinion.

In order to bring into force the sustainability index, a decree and several orders were drafted and open to public comments in 2023. April contributed, stating that software obsolescence could only be fought by appropriately taking into account free software and the ways in which they are developed. Software obsolescence being, furthermore, insufficiently taken into account in the drafted texts, comparatively to more issues more relating to hardware.

This sustainability index, at least the one on "multifonction mobile phones", or computer phones2, won't see the day of light. On October, 27th, 2023, by a detailed opinion, the European Commission rejected the order "on the criteria, sub-criteria and scoring system for calculating and displaying the sustainability index of multifunctional mobile phones", considered incompatible with regulation (EU) 2023/1669 on "the energy labelling of smartphones and slate tablets", that came into force September, 20th, 2023.

In this context, France notified the Commission, in February of 2024, that it will not publish it's order on "multifonction mobile phones", and that it will forward to the Commission the finalized version of the other texts.

• 1. The regulatory text of 2020 about the reparability index criterion, still in place, defines "Multifonction mobile phones" as electronic equipment used for long-range communication on a cellular network, with functionalities similar to that of a wireless laptop and with a tactile interface.
• 2. Talking about "computer phones" is a way to underline that this tool, aside from its telephone functions, incorporates a personal computer enabling it to manage or to transmit data and to access the Internet. It has, among other things, major implications in terms of computing freedoms and security, especially since computer phones have become tools for surveillance, commercial tracking and invasion of privacy.