Quarterly BAS Due (July–September)
Form 1099-NEC & Contractor Payment Reporting Check
Why this matters.
UK “right to repair” law is no longer just a EU concept. Since 2021, the Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Amendment) Regulations 2021 have required manufacturers and importers of washing machines, washer-dryers, dishwashers, fridges and freezers, and electronic displays (including TVs and monitors) to make spare parts available to professional repairers — typically for 7 to 10 years after a model stops being sold — and to supply the repair and maintenance information needed to fix them. The obligation sits with whoever places the product on the UK market, which for many small retailers and importers means checking what their supplier actually provides rather than assuming compliance is someone else’s problem. The rules are enforced by the Office for Product Safety and Standards and local Trading Standards, who can require products to be withdrawn from sale where spare parts or repair information aren’t available as required. The picture is getting more demanding, not less. The EU’s Ecodesign for smartphones and tablets Regulation ((EU) 2023/1670) already requires spare parts and repair information for those devices sold into the EU or Northern Ireland market, and the EU Right to Repair Directive ((EU) 2024/1799) — which member states must transpose by 31 July 2026 — goes further, banning practices that make independent repair harder, requiring a standard European Repair Information Form, and extending obligations across a wider range of products. UK businesses that sell into the EU or NI market, even occasionally, need to track both regimes, while UK domestic policy is also under active review to extend right-to-repair duties to more product categories. A business that can’t show it meets its current spare parts and repair-information obligations risks Trading Standards action, product withdrawal, and — if repairability or durability claims are made in marketing — exposure under the Consumer Rights Act 2015’s satisfactory quality requirements.
