Major Appliance Brands Stall Independent Repairer's Legally Required Repair Information Requests for Eight Months

A Repairer's Eight-Month Wait

Jacob D'Hollander, who has repaired household appliances in Ghent, Belgium, since 2010, began emailing major appliance manufacturers in autumn 2025 to request service manuals, wiring diagrams, and diagnostic information. Under EU Ecodesign regulations, professional repairers who meet competency, registration, and insurance requirements are legally entitled to this information, with manufacturers required to respond to registration requests within five working days.

D'Hollander contacted AEG, Bauknecht, Bosch, Beko, Electrolux, Indesit, Miele, Neff, Siemens, Whirlpool, and Zanussi. After eight months of repeated requests, only the Beko group — which includes the Bauknecht and Whirlpool brands — had provided him with the legally required repair information.

A Proprietary-Information Defense

In January 2026, the Head of Customer Care at one brand told D'Hollander that the company's repair methods, wiring diagrams, and diagnostic test programs were proprietary and limited to authorized service partners who have contractual agreements, specific training, and validated tools with the manufacturer. That explanation directly conflicts with the legal obligations manufacturers have under Ecodesign rules, which explicitly require access to diagnostic information and wiring diagrams for qualifying independent repairers.

According to the key facts of this case, some brands granted D'Hollander access to Tradeplace, a shared spare-parts sales platform, but left out the service-information tab that should accompany that access — even as they continued selling him parts through the same platform.

Part of a Broader Pattern

This case was first documented by Right to Repair Europe, a coalition advocating for repair access policy, in a report published September 16, 2026. The coalition noted the D'Hollander case alongside a separate finding that, one year after Ecodesign rules took effect, 80% of smartphones still lacked required repair information.

The source report did not identify which brand sent the January email beyond describing the sender's title, nor did it detail what specific actions, if any, regulators have taken in response to date.