The EU should enforce much larger warranties than the current 2 years.
The higher the price, the longer the required warranty:
A 1500€ electric scooter should have, say, 7 years warranty. A car, 10 years - after that date, the battery interface becomes open source hardware for easy OEM replacement.
Results:
+ Sweatshops exploiting people in miserable conditions are no longer profitable
+ Protects the environment via resource utilization reduction
+ The EU can compete in manufacturing - via quality - with competitors that mostly offer cheap labor.
I generally like the idea of stronger warranties but it's not always reasonable to relate them to cost. For example batteries: they last for a specific number of uses, and it doesn't matter how expensive they are.
It would also stifle innovation. Foldable phones, or any new technology, always starts out expensive and less durable. There's no way they could give a longer warranty on a foldable phone than on a cheap normal phone. Note, I'm not really a fan of foldable phones but it's the best example I could think of right now. You can replace it with almost any new technology.
The EU should enforce much larger warranties than the current 2 years.
The higher the price, the longer the required warranty:
A 1500€ electric scooter should have, say, 7 years warranty. A car, 10 years - after that date, the battery interface becomes open source hardware for easy OEM replacement.
Results:
+ Sweatshops exploiting people in miserable conditions are no longer profitable
+ Protects the environment via resource utilization reduction
+ The EU can compete in manufacturing - via quality - with competitors that mostly offer cheap labor.