Planned Obsolescence in the Context of a Holistic Legal Sphere and the Circular Economy

Malinauskaitė, Jurgita; Erdem, Fatih Buğra

doi:10.1093/ojls/gqaa061

Cited by 33 publications

(36 citation statements)

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“…According to this approach, consumers and society are made dependent and exploited, resources are wasted and significant environmental problems arise. (Sihvonen, 2020;La Rosa, 2020;Albrecht, 2019;Latouche, 2009;Proske et al, 2016;Malinauskaite and Erdem, 2021;Zhao et al, 2021;Özkan and Yücel, 2020;Marcus, 2020;Kuppelwieser et al, 2019;Paricio et al, 2019;Adrion and Woidasky, 2019). In the second approach, planned obsolescence is considered as a concept that provides various benefits to both producers and consumers and society.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Investigating the underlying reasons for the life cycle of smart phones and planned obsolescence, Proske et al (2016) found that a significant portion of consumers believed in the reality of planned obsolescence in the market and wanted to have more durable products. Malinauskaite and Erdem (2021), evaluating planned obsolescence from three different perspectives (demand side, supply side and environmental side), stated that existing measures to deal with planned obsolescence are insufficient in terms of unfair competition and consumer protection law, competition law and environmental law. They expressed the need for EU measures prohibiting planned obsolescence.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Planned Obsolescence: Is It a Trap Set for the Consumer or Is It a Strategy Contributing to Social Development?

Umar¹,

Beyaz²

2021

Ege Akademik Bakis (Ege Academic Review)

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Planned Obsolescence, which is a controversial concept with its positive and negative criticism in the literature, is a concept that refers to the limited life span of products. It attracts the attention of researchers that the concept is both identified with consumption culture and seen as an important development tool. Based on the question of "Is planned obsolescence a socioeconomic opportunity or a trap for consumers?" it is aimed to reveal the approaches of the experts in this study.Based on the qualitative research design semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 experts. As a result of the study generally two approaches of the interviewers towards the concept of planned obsolescence can be mentioned. According to the first approach, planned obsolescence is considered as a necessary and ethical concept for social, economic, technological and ecological development. Planned obsolescence has been "positively" received in that it allows consumers to get rid of repair and maintenance costs and lower income groups to access services. According to the second approach, planned obsolescence is considered as the sum of characteristics that pollute the environment, exploit consumers, waste resources and push people to crime.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planned Obsolescence: Is It a Trap Set for the Consumer or Is It a Strategy Contributing to Social Development?

Umar¹,

Beyaz²

2021

Ege Akademik Bakis (Ege Academic Review)

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“…7 Mobile phone producers have been confronted with lawsuits and authority decisions about their planned obsolescence strategies (Gibbs, 2018;Vasseur, 2020). In 2017, the Italian Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM)) imposed 5 million euro fines to Apple and Samsung for unfair commercial practices, with Apple receiving an additional 5 million euro fine for failing to properly inform consumer (Malinauskaite & Erdem, 2021). Apple argued that intentionally slowing down older iPhones via software updates was necessary to avoid unforeseen shutdowns, even though such a program would disable the utility of a device well before its physical product lifetime.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scholars for instance discussed the legal implications of settling to pay class action settlements in coupons valid only for purchasing products from the company that plaintiffs sued in the first place (Connolly, 2016;Gallagher, 2015). Other studies centre around the question of which legal responses-competition law, consumer protection law, environmental law or criminal law-are the most adequate to regulate planned obsolescence (La Rosa, 2020;Maitre-Ekern & Dalhammar, 2016;Malinauskaite & Erdem, 2021), or place planned obsolescence within the political and economic historical climate in which it developed (Pope, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designed to break: planned obsolescence as corporate environmental crime

Bisschop

Hendlin

Jaspers³

2022

Crime Law Soc Change

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Planned obsolescence is the practice of deliberately designing products to limit their life span to encourage replacement. It is a common business strategy for consumer goods, with far-reaching ecological and social consequences. Here, we examine the definition, causes and consequences of planned obsolescence by using insights from corporate crime literature, integrated with environmental philosophy, management sciences, technology studies and law. Focusing on cases of planned obsolescence in consumer electronics, we show that the concept and procedure carries conceptual ambiguity and moral ambivalence, bearing diffuse harms, benefitting short-term corporate profit but undermining consumer confidence, and posing a major barrier to environmental sustainability. We discuss the system lock-ins driving companies to engage in planned obsolescence, and reframe the practice as a form of corporate environmental crime.

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“…For this reason, the problem of planned obsolescence has attracted the attention of many stakeholders, including the media, community and consumer protection organizations, academics, businesses and institutions, and has been the subject of wide public debate at local and international levels [30]. One of its effects is the gradual introduction of institutional solutions aimed at combating the abuses arising in this area and improving the effectiveness of their prosecution by law [31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Strategy for Planned Product Aging in View of Sustainable Development Challenges

Niklewicz-Pijaczyńska

Stańczyk

Gardocka-Jałowiec

et al. 2021

Energies

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In this paper, the issue of the deliberate aging of products by manufacturers is discussed. Deliberate aging consists in intentionally planning or designing a product with an artificially limited lifetime in order to force consumers to replace it faster. The resulting rapid acceleration of the cycle of obtaining and utilizing consumer goods has serious consequences in the form of negative externalities. For this reason, the conscious aging of products is now recognized as the cause of unjustified consumption, generating huge economic and social costs and leading to the devastation of the natural environment and excessive exploitation of natural resources. Thus, it is in clear contradiction to the model of sustainable development. The aim of this paper was to identify the purchasing attitudes of buyers in the durable goods market. For its implementation, a pilot questionnaire study, which covered a representative group of 354 respondents, was carried out. The results indicate that the factors that influence the purchase of restitution goods depend on the type of product and the consumer’s income. At the same time, about two thirds of the respondents recognized the problem of the deliberate aging of products. In their opinion, the goods produced in the autarkic economy were more durable and their life cycle was much longer. The results obtained require further empirical verification carried out in comparative studies.

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Planned Obsolescence in the Context of a Holistic Legal Sphere and the Circular Economy

Cited by 33 publications

References 0 publications

Planned Obsolescence: Is It a Trap Set for the Consumer or Is It a Strategy Contributing to Social Development?

Planned Obsolescence: Is It a Trap Set for the Consumer or Is It a Strategy Contributing to Social Development?

Designed to break: planned obsolescence as corporate environmental crime

A Strategy for Planned Product Aging in View of Sustainable Development Challenges

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