Apple to be Impacted by France's new Proposal to Limit Telecom Deals promoting Continual Upgrades
On February 15th Patently Apple posted a report titled "France is Pushing for Big Changes to proposed EU Tech Regulation that could hit US Tech companies harder and Apple Specifically." Today we're learning of one specific new proposal could directly affect Apple as well as other top brands like Samsung.
According to a new Reuters report, "France is weighing possible regulation to restrict the early renewal of smartphones via commercial offers by telecoms operators in a bid to lower the environmental impact of connected devices, a government official said on Tuesday.
French telecoms operators Orange, Bouygues Telecoms and Altice Europe’s SFR have for years been luring new customers by providing brand new smartphones in exchange for contractual commitments for a certain period of time, up to two years.
These commercial offers entice customers to upgrade their smartphones while their previous one is still working, the French government says in a roadmap on "tech and environment" issued on Tuesday.
A government official stated today: "We’re ready to adopt new measures. The aim is clearly to increase the life of terminals," referring to smartphones.
The official said that the government will first ask the French telecoms authority Arcep to review the telecoms operators’ contract offers to determine if and how they might accelerate the change of smartphones.
The French government estimates that 75% of the negative impact on the environment due to the digital sector. It will also ask the watchdog to define and collect a new set of data to assess the environmental impact of telecoms operators as well as “major digital players” on the environment, it said. For more, read the full Reuters report.
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