hey everybody how's it going hope we're
having a lovely day so today I'd like to
discuss a proposal from the EU that is
so bad I can't tell if they're memeing I
I can't tell if this is a joke honest to
God I have no idea
let's just go through it so this is
right to repair commission introduces
new rights for easy and attractive
repairs this came up about a year and a
half ago I had heard news that one of
the top EU Regulators was going to be
meeting Tim Cook in New York not far
from my business so you know I couldn't
help myself I did a video saying make
this happen meeting Tim Cook meet us
instead where I extended an invitation
for this regulator to come by my store
maybe get dinner we can have a
conversation I know that corporate
Executives and lobbyists like to have
robust conversations behind closed doors
with legislators and regulators and I
thought maybe it's time that I do the
same thing and I actually got a response
it was you know a minute long video Geo
Lewis and supporters of right to repair
thank you for reaching out to me and you
here is my response to you regarding
right to repair a year and a half later
we get this press release March 22nd
2023 right to repair commission
introduces new consumer rights for easy
and attractive repairs so let's see what
this does so it says it is a right for
consumers to claim repair to producers
for products that are technically
repairable like washing machine or TV
okay so it means that you can go back to
the manufacturer to get a repair which
you can already do within the legal
guarantee sellers will be required to
offer repair except when it is more
expensive than replacement and that's
not going to do anything because the
manufacturer always makes the repair
more expensive than the replacement
that's what happened here with the CBC
News piece where the issue that the
customer had was a display cable that
most repair shops cost 75 to 200 to fix
because the part is five dollars and it
takes 20 minutes to do and they wanted
two thousand dollars to replace
everything in the machine because
they've come up with a ridiculous list
of procedures on how to proceed when you
have a very very basic problem the issue
is not that the manufacturer is saying
no to fixing things the issue is that
the manufacturer is making it impossible
for anybody else to do it so this
proposal already begins with a
fundamental misunderstanding of the
problem it says a producer has an
obligation to inform consumers about
products that they are obliged to repair
themselves which you don't need the
producer to tell you can fix it yourself
you you already knew that an online
matchmaking repair platform to connect
consumers with repairs and sellers of
repurbished goods in the area the
platform will enable searches by
location and quality standards helping
consumers find attractive offers and
boosting visibility for repairs hmm I
wonder if this problem was solved like I
don't know 15 years ago by almost every
major search engine if I am searching
for a refurbisher in the area I can
search on Google Maps MacBook repair and
I can see all the different businesses
in my area where they're located I could
see this guy is 3.9 stars with 92
reviews Ross and repair group is 4.9
stars at 1567 reviews this guy is 3.6
stars at 39 reviews this guy is you know
five stars with four reviews see you you
can actually look up all the different
businesses in the area this problem was
solved 15 years ago you had Google you
had City search you have Facebook yeah
all these other platforms some of them
have their pluses some of them have
their minuses but that's not the problem
we're looking to solve here customers
have been finding me just fine for the
past 15 years
a European repair information form which
consumers will be able to request from
any repairer bringing transparency to
repair conditions and price and make it
easier for consumers to compare repair
offers a European repair Information
Form hmm a repair information firmware
you can request information or get
prices I wonder if that was solved over
25 years ago with the invention of the
website if you go to my website which
you can click onto once you've clicked
on my listing on here to see you after
seeing my reputation and what area I'm
in you can see the prices of keyboard
replacement depending on the model that
you have and if you want to contact us
if you want to reach out to us you can
click the contact button that exists on
most websites on the internet today and
fill in your name your phone number what
you have and what's wrong with it or you
can email me directly this is a form
that you should be allowed to request
from any repairer which means that I now
have to keep a particular standard form
on file to provide you if you ask for it
so you're actually making life harder
for the repair shop rather than allowing
me to have my own website with my own
prices and have my own contact form I
now have to have one that is streamlined
through your system that is not going to
help me get parts that is not going to
help me get schematics that is not going
to help me get the software necessary to
pair apart to a device you're making my
life more difficult in exchange I get
nothing are you serious
This Is MeMe tier legislation it solves
no problems it helps nobody Apple would
be inconvenienced by this I would be
inconvenienced by this my customer would
be inconvenienced by this for nothing
nothing this is not new there is no new
bureaucracy that is needed for any of
this a European quality standard for
repair services will be developed to
help consumers identify repairs who
commit to a higher quality this easy
repair stand will be open to all repairs
across the EU willing to commit to
minimum quality standards for example
based on duration or availability of
products this is accepting the
manufacturer's framing the manufacturer
will always say we can't have
Independents doing the job because we
don't know if you're good enough and one
of the things that I've said on this
channel many times is that you're not
good enough as it is your repairs suck
when you fix u8900 problems on a MacBook
you are literally putting a piece of
rubber there rather than re-soldering it
when you fix a 2011 MacBook Pro at GPU
issues you are roasting the thing to the
point that the board turns brown
the manufacturer is not good at
repairing their own products they're
trying to fix the wrong problem or as my
friend Daniel smallen says this is like
trying to solve world hunger by
requiring Michelin star restaurants to
write the price on their menu
it sounds good but it doesn't solve the
problem I'll give you an example of the
problem with the newest MacBook you know
how laptops when you close the laptop it
will turn off because it knows it's
closed that's because they have a magnet
in the lid they'll usually be a magnet
on the side of the lid and there'll be a
hall sensor which people who are not
technically inclined think of it like a
magnet sensor it senses when a magnet is
an error there'll be a magnet sensor on
the base so when you have it open the
magnet sensor doesn't sense the magnet
when you close it the magnet is now
touching the magnet sensor and it knows
to turn off the machine when this broke
in older devices you could just unplug
it and plug a new one in in newer
devices from around 2013 onwards this
was soldered onto the motherboard but no
problem you could just desolder the old
one and solder in a new one and your
problem was solved with the newer
machines if you replace this part even
if you replace it with an oem in the
newest MacBook it doesn't work until you
run Apple's proprietary software that
they don't make available to
Independence in order to pair it it's
paired I can't fix a sleep sensor
anymore so what I have to do when it's
corroded is I have to rip the old one
off the board I have to rip all the
pieces off of it take the legs of it
that are falling apart and use a fine
tip soldering iron and kind of file it
as if I'm filing my nails to see if I
can get to something that I can connect
to and then reconnect it and if that
works great if that doesn't work I have
to tell the customer your laptop can't
sleep anymore even though I put a new
sleep sensor in there because of what
they've done this does not solve our
problem of lack of Parts availability
and when parts are available the
manufacturer's serializing them so that
it will not work again until you use
their software same thing with John
Deere the customer has repaired their
own three hundred thousand dollar
tractor but it won't work again until
the dealer shows up to plug their
computer in none of these people were
complaining about the lack of
availability of reviews or repair
information or pricing from Independence
you can go to an independent repair
provider's website and find the price
right there if you want to contact the
independent you can do it right here on
their website people that make a living
off of providing good service tend to
make sure that there's a way for you to
easily contact them to get that service
and if you want to figure out if they're
good or not there are many websites that
will help you in doing so maybe this is
just a sign that I don't understand EU
culture but I can't tell if this is a
meme if this is just done on purpose to
say that right to repair was passed when
it wasn't or if
they actually think this is good it's
kind of like New York personalities
versus California personalities like you
know they say this a lot that in
California people say oh hi wow it's
really nice to meet you oh wow you're
doing there is really amazing damn
that's really cool man I gotta hit you
up give me your number it'll be great to
contact you again in the future let's be
friends and then when they walk away
five minutes later they're like yeah I
can't stand that guy don't invest in
this company whereas in New York
somebody will meet you and say hey how's
it going oh you're that guy I can't
effing stand you I hate you screw you
here's why I hate you here's why I think
you should rot in hell by the way I'll
see you tomorrow pleasure meeting you
and I'll keep walking see the difference
between the California approach and the
New York approach is that in the New
York Approach at least you'll know that
the person hates you at least you'll
know where they stand they may be rude
they may be an [ __ ] but you know
where you stand and that's what I can
say for a lot of American politics so
for instance in Nebraska when a
legislator agrees to meet with gay
Gordon Bern and myself in 2017 and then
he cancels the meeting right before the
hearing last minute right as he gets a
donation from the opposition
and that's the lobbyist that testified
against the bill and she gave you 2 500
bucks it's like huh okay I could kind of
put the pieces together there I know
what side you're on that makes life easy
for me another example Kathy holchel
butchering the right to repair bill as
opposition lobbyists literally write the
bill for her the opposition lobbyist
wrote the right to repair Bill and
destroyed it I know which side you're on
now that's great or on the flip side of
that issue Tom Brandt there was a group
of legislators that I pictured here that
literally laughed at us they laughed at
us and the farmers that showed up to
testify that day this one in here in
particular laughed the most so what this
gentleman did named Tom Brandt he's a
farmer he ran against her in his
district he won and he reintroduced the
bill that she laughed at I know which
side he's on he's on our side I can
usually tell whether somebody is on our
side or on the side of the opposition
here I honestly can't tell I honestly
can't tell
you think this matters
you think this solves anything Parts not
being available manufacturers
serializing parts to the device so even
once you've finally gone through the
shawshack Redemption sewer of [ __ ] to
find a supplier for the part that you
need it won't work because it doesn't
match the original
these are not problems these are
problems of the internet of 1994 not of
the internet of 2023.
I have no idea I
this has to be a meme
this has to be a meme this can't be real
this is useless this is literally worse
than useless now I would vote against
this because what this does is it
creates a new bureaucracy that solves
absolutely nothing this is almost like
this is like dealing with New York State
Department of Taxation or Finance or the
Supreme Court in all seriousness you're
going to have to have somebody to manage
this system you're gonna have to have
somebody create the form you're going to
have a committee that tries to come up
with what the information form should
have on it for this quality standard
[ __ ] you're gonna have to have a group
of people sit by and come with all of
this
is going to require additional
bureaucracy
additional people working and it solves
nothing
it's not even that I think this
is I'm not even neutral on this I would
vote against this
I would actually vote against this this
is this solves nothing this is useless
and the reason I'm doing this video is
because similar to the John Deere
memorandum of understanding one of the
things that I learned is that if you
don't come out early when it comes to
these things is that the news will cover
it as if it is a win so in this video
that I did a few weeks ago John Deere
memo Farmers have not won but that won't
stop the news from pretending they did
there were a bunch of news articles that
came out where people were saying that
farmers want right to repair we're good
we won we got what we were looking for
and the reality couldn't have been
further from the truth all of these news
outlets deer gives Farmers long-sawed
ability to repair their tractors at some
point BBC fell for it BBC said U.S
Farmers win right to repair for John
Deere equipment because what they did
was all of these journalists all these
horrible news sites they read the
headline without actually reading the
content and then I'll get pinged on
Reddit 10 times that they sang Louis you
won't write your parents feel
we didn't win anything so the reason I'm
coming out early and strong against this
is that people understand that what
you're reading here is not a win this is
a joke this is a joke this solves
nothing this does nothing this
accomplishes nothing this does not
increase the ability of your local
neighborhood repair shop to be able to
fix anything as Daniel smallen said this
is like solving world hunger by saying
that prices need to be on the menu of a
five-star restaurant
am I being harsh here I don't think I'm
being harshier I think this is useless I
think it if if it honest if it genuinely
took from October 2021 to March of 2023
to come up with this
oh I'm glad I didn't put any effort into
into the EU
I'm glad I get I'd rather just have my
local politician tell me to go [ __ ]
myself to be honest with you I'd rather
just have to I'd I'd literally rather
have CT Wilson call me a racist I would
rather have CT Wilson call me a racist
for saying that he is wrong for
conflating firmware with source code I
would rather that than this because at
least I know which side he's on he is on
the side of his own personal ego but at
least I get it with this I have no idea
like with this I I don't even have an
indication of what's going on like are
you controlled opposition do you not
agree with me ideologically are you
bought are you just incompetent like I
have no idea I don't even know where to
start I have no idea what the incentive
structure is to spend 18 months writing
a useless proposal that makes life worse
for every single party involved and dare
I say it I believe that it actually
takes work to come up with a proposal
that makes life worse for the consumer
the independent and the manufacturer
sure all at once and here's the sad part
about this here's the sad part about
this this is going to be used as fodder
for people to say there is no point
regulation will 100 of the time makes
things worse and if somebody pointed to
the regulation always making things
worse and pointed to this case I
wouldn't be able to disagree with them
this actually does if you take a look at
the bills that I put out there it
doesn't require that a repair shop uses
special form and register in a special
database and you know have the none of
this it just says what you make
available to your own repair centers
make available to Independents and
consumers it's that simple it's a very
very short basic and simple thing it
does not require new bureaucracy in any
way shape or form there's not going to
have to be some sort of new commission
to come up with standards for things or
any of that nonsense like this the bills
that we put forth in states are very
very Liberty respecting make available
to Consumers and Independence the stuff
that you make available to your service
centers how you do that we don't care
quality standards not not don't care new
websites new forms new reviews don't
know none of that just make things
available this entire proposal as it is
written is an argument for agricultism I
[ __ ] you not it is that bad the EU is a
funny place man it really is anyway let
me know what you think in the comments
down below that's it for today and as
always I hope you learned something I'll
see you on the next video bye now