From 31 July 2026, every EU member state must have Directive (EU) 2024/1799 — the repair directive — live in national law. But the duty to repair does not cover “electronics”: it covers exactly ten categories listed in Annex II of that directive, and what “repairable” means for each one is set by a separate ecodesign regulation, with its own parts list, its own number of years and its own delivery deadline.

Those ten lists have never been published side by side in English. Below they are, cross-read from the official consolidated texts. If you take in repairs, this is the table that tells you what you can demand and what you cannot.

The ten categories, what you can demand, and by when

Article 5(1) of the directive is deliberately narrow: the manufacturer must repair goods “for which, and to the extent that, repairability requirements are provided for by Union legal acts listed in Annex II”. So the directive is the hook; the ecodesign regulation is the substance.

Category Parts owed to professional repairers Parts owed to end users too Availability Max delivery
Washing machines & washer-dryers
Reg. 2019/2023		 Motor and motor brushes, transmission, pumps, shock absorbers and springs, drum/spider/bearings, heaters and heat pumps, piping and valves, printed circuit boards, electronic displays, pressure switches, thermostats and sensors, software and firmware including reset software Door, hinge and seals, door locking assembly, detergent dispenser 10 years after last unit of the model 15 working days
Dishwashers
Reg. 2019/2022		 Motor, circulation and drain pump, heaters, piping and aquastops, door structural parts, PCBs, electronic displays, pressure switches, thermostats and sensors, software and firmware including reset software Door hinge and seals, spray arms, drain filters, racks and baskets 7 years (pro list)
10 years (user list)		 15 working days
Refrigerating appliances
Reg. 2019/2019		 Thermostats, temperature sensors, printed circuit boards, light sources Door handles, hinges, trays and baskets (7 years); door gaskets (10 years) 7 years 15 working days
Electronic displays (TVs, monitors)
Reg. 2019/2021 as amended by Reg. 2021/341		 Internal power supply, external connectors (cable, antenna, USB, DVD, Blu-Ray), capacitors above 400 microfarads, batteries and accumulators, DVD/Blu-Ray module, HD/SSD module External power supply, remote control 7 years 15 working days
Tumble dryers
Reg. 2023/2533		 19 items, including motors and brushes, drums and bearings, condensate pump, fans, PCBs, electronic displays, thermostats, electric fuses, tension pulley, software and firmware including reset software Doors, seals, handles, lock assemblies, hinges, lint filters 10 years (models placed from 1 July 2025) 15 working days
Welding equipment
Reg. 2019/1784		 Control panel, power source, housing, batteries, welding torch, gas hoses and regulators, wire drive, fans, supply cable, software and firmware including reset software — (no end-user list) 10 years after last unit produced 15 working days
Mobile phones, smartphones, tablets
Reg. 2023/1670		 Battery, front camera assembly, rear camera assembly, audio connector, charging port, mechanical buttons, main microphone, speaker, hinge assembly, folding mechanism Battery, back cover, foldable protective foil, display assembly, charger, SIM/memory tray 7 years after end of placement on the market 5 working days for the first 5 years, 10 working days for the remaining 2
Servers & data storage
Reg. 2019/424		 No parts list. Instead: joining or sealing must not prevent disassembly of storage devices, memory, CPU, motherboard, expansion/graphics card, PSU, chassis, batteries — Latest firmware for 8 years; latest security updates free of charge for 8 years —
Vacuum cleaners
Reg. 666/2013		 None. The act sets durability only: hose still usable after 40 000 oscillations under strain, operational motor lifetime ≥ 500 hours — — —
Goods with LMT batteries (e-bikes, scooters)
Reg. 2023/1542		 The battery and its individual cells must be removable and replaceable by an independent professional Portable batteries: removable by the end user with commercially available tools Applies from 18 February 2027 —

What comes with the parts: a schematic, in law

The appliance and display regulations carry an identical clause that gets far less attention than the parts lists. Once you register as a professional repairer, the manufacturer must give you, within one working day of the request: “a disassembly map or exploded view”; “component and diagnosis information (such as minimum and maximum theoretical values for measurements)”; “wiring and connection diagrams”; “diagnostic fault and error codes (including manufacturer-specific codes, where applicable)”; and “data records of reported failure incidents”.

That is a service manual with expected voltages, described in a legal act. The registration itself must be accepted or refused within 5 working days, and the only two things a manufacturer may require of you are technical competence under your national rules and liability insurance. They may charge a fee, but only one that “does not discourage access”.

The other quietly enormous line is “software and firmware including reset software”, which appears as a spare part in the washing machine, dishwasher, tumble dryer and welding regulations. If a board swap on a washing machine needs a manufacturer tool to pair or reset it, that tool is on the parts list — not a favour.

The part nobody covers: 400 microfarads

Read the display row again. The original 2019 text said “capacitors”. Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/341 replaced that line, and the wording in force today is “capacitors above 400 microfarads”.

On a TV power board, that is the bulk cap on the primary side and very little else. The 22 µF and 47 µF electrolytics on the secondary rails — the ones that dry out, lose capacitance and take the standby rail with them, which is the failure you actually meet on the bench — are below the threshold and are not covered by any obligation.

Scan the whole table with that in mind and a pattern appears. “Internal power supply.” “Printed circuit boards.” “Display assembly.” Every list is written at board level. EU law, as it stands in 2026, guarantees you the right to buy a whole board for seven to ten years. It guarantees you almost nothing at component level, and for phones it explicitly forbids bundling parts into bigger assemblies — while defining those parts as assemblies to begin with.

That is not a complaint about the law; it is the operating condition. It also explains why reading the schematic yourself and desoldering the failed part remains the only route to a component-level repair on most hardware, legislation or not.

What the directive adds on top

Four provisions of Directive 2024/1799 apply to everything in the table:

Limits, and the mistakes to avoid

Your laptop is not on the list. Notebooks, desktops other than servers, games consoles and power tools appear nowhere in Annex II. An e-bike is covered only through its battery, from February 2027. If someone tells you the EU now guarantees laptop spare parts, they have not read the annex.

Parts pairing is not banned. The phone regulation’s review clause lists “the appropriateness to prohibit serialisation of parts” as something the Commission will assess later. Combined with the IP carve-out in Article 5(6), serialisation survives in the EU for now — which is why the US state laws that address it directly are a separate story.

A directive is not a regulation. 2024/1799 has to be transposed by each member state, and Article 3 lets them keep stricter national rules. The regulations in the table apply directly and identically; the directive’s duty to repair will read slightly differently in each country. Check your national transposition before quoting it to a manufacturer.

Vacuum cleaners are the trap. They sit in Annex II, so people assume a parts obligation. Regulation 666/2013 sets durability numbers and no spare parts at all.

Watch the clock start. Nearly every period runs from the placing on the market of the last unit of the model, not from your customer’s purchase date. A model discontinued in 2024 has parts owed into 2031 or 2034 — often much longer than the owner assumes.

FAQ

Do I have to be a registered business to get the parts?
For the professional lists, yes: technical competence plus liability insurance, verified once at registration. The end-user columns are open to anyone.

Can they make me buy a whole board when one capacitor failed?
For displays, above 400 µF the capacitor itself is on the list. Below that, in practice yes — nothing obliges them to sell you the component.

Does any of this apply to a monitor with a corrupted EDID?
Not usefully. The EEPROM is not a listed part, which is why fixing it in software or reflashing it yourself is still the route.

Is 15 working days enforceable?
It is a requirement on the manufacturer under an ecodesign regulation, enforced by national market surveillance authorities, not by you directly. Document the order date; that is what a complaint rests on.

Sources

All texts below are the official versions on EUR-Lex. Where a regulation has been amended, the amending act is listed with it.

The United States runs a different system entirely: seven states, seven cutoff dates, and a right that depends on when the unit was sold rather than what it is — see the US right to repair tracker, state by state.

Related on the bench: testing capacitors and ESR, bench power supply diagnostics, and which multimeter specs actually matter.