Repair or Protection? The Conflict between the Right to Repair and Software Copyright in EU Law

Sammanfattning

This thesis assesses the efficiency of the EU Law’s balancing act between the software developers’ copyright protection on their respective computer programs and the software users’ right to repair their defected software based devices. This research necessitates an EU legal method, implying the comprehensive analysis of EU legislation and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as the interpretation of scholarly works and key EU doctrines, all through the lens of emerging sustainability considerations and policy objectives towards circular economy transformation. In that regard, the thesis aims to answer the question whether EU’s copyright protection for computer programs limit the right to repair software-dependent products, and in the affirmative, how EU law should be amended in order to adequately address any existing imbalance between conflicting interests. As far as the results of our research are concerned, we conclude that despite the EU’s balancing aspirations, the conflicting policy interests and the existing inconsistencies of EU legislation require a thorough revision and amendment of EU law. At the end of our research, we summarise our recommendations and possible solutions as well in this regard.