Right to Repair Between Intellectual Property and Servitization

In the paradigm shift towards circular economy, the so-called right to repair (‘R2R’) is pivotal for promoting sustainable development within an innovative productive system. This proves true looking at the legislative agenda all over the world: in the European Union, such reform program gained momentum more recently, especially with Directive (EU) 2024/1799. At a closer look, however, this Directive seems to disregard the issues of intellectual property and servitization, which represent relevant obstacles for R2R in law and in fact. This paper criticizes such an approach, considering how the EU legislator seems to (green)wash its hands under both perspectives. Therefore, an evolutive interpretation of the Directive is here proposed in order ensure effectivity to R2R. On one side, against an excessive reverence to intellectual property, it is maintained that the pursuit of public interest underlying repair could well entail a ‘due prejudice’ to private business rights, limiting their prevalence to abuse cases. On the other side, against biased presumption that servitization is always beneficial for a sustainable circular economy, it is maintained that the consumer shall instead enjoy the right to freely turn to an open competitive market for repair, in order to counteract the relevant foreclosure effects of this contract model