The EU is introducing an energy label for phones, together with mandatory requirements for phones sold in the EU;

- 5 years of software updates (AFTER they stop selling the device in the EU)

- providing important hardware parts (during sale and for 7 years after), including free software (if needed), to every repair shop, within 5-10 business days

- batteries have to make 800 charging cycles and still be above 80% original capacity

And on top of that, phones and tablets need this energy label (which also includes a fall damage durability and repairability score), and abide by the above requirements, from 20 June 2025.

(https://energy-efficient-products.ec.europa.eu/product-list/smartphones-and-tablets_en)

Smartphones and Tablets

Product Energy Efficiency - Smartphones and Tablets. The 2023 regulations cover smartphones, feature phones, cordless phones and slate tablets. They do not apply to tablet computers, to products with flexible main display (roll-up), and to smartphones for high security communication. Energy labelling is foreseen only for smartphones and slate tablets.

Energy Efficient Products
@ShadowJonathan I wonder if that will hurt availability of the Lower end handsets, esp as a lot of the oems are at the mercy of if the chipset vendor can be bothered to support the soc
@Dragon @ShadowJonathan Samsung is selling A16 for 130€ with 6 years of support, so it is possible.
Bunch of 6-7y old phones have LineageOS 22 (Android 15) build, but OEMs stopped supporting them years ago. Some companies like HMD have 5y for business users only (2y for standard models) even though hardware and software are the same.
Maybe these new regulations will put pressure on OEMs who are selling bad products, but it could actually make it easier (and cheaper) for those who already invest in repairability and/or longer support.