A CONSUMER champion has accused big high street brands of “leaving customers in the dark” about key upgrades to their smart appliances.
Producers of household gadgets such as washing machines, dishwashers and TVs are not informing Brits how long it will be before they abandon the products by stopping vital tech updates, Which? has found.
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This is despite key upcoming laws that will soon make transparency a legal requirement.
A survey carried out by Which? of more than 220 brands found the majority either update smart devices with vital tech amendments for a dismally short time or have no published policy, leaving consumers unclear about how long their product is guaranteed to be supported with updates.
New laws, coming into force from April 29, will make it illegal to sell products in the UK that do not have published product update policies stating a minimum time for support.
Manufacturers that fail to comply with the law face potential fines of up to £10million or four per cent of worldwide revenue.
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Unsupported devices can become a security risk as flaws emerge that hackers can exploit.
Support is a commitment from the manufacturer that the smart element of a product will continue to work.
That is important because unsupported products could lose functionality or even become useless before their time.
Appliances otherwise in working condition could be thrown out, which is bad for the owner and the environment.
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Which? asked 224 brands in 37 categories if they had a clear updates policy.
Just three in 10 (31%) clearly said how many years their products would be supported, while one in 10 (11%) offered a vague policy.
Six in 10 (58%) did not answer, refused to comment or did not have a policy.
Some brands have repeatedly failed to comment in the three years Which? has been running the survey.
Hoover and Candy (both owned by Haier), along with Beko and AEG have never given Which? clear policies.
TP-Link and Huawei (both various devices), Canon (printers) and V-Tech (baby monitors), have consistently said nothing, too.
Some brands have said they were aware of the upcoming laws and were working on a policy.
Brands, such as Sony, Hisense and Arlo, that previously reported a policy said nothing in 2023.
Which? said it believes Apple offers good support (the iPhone 8 still gets security updates more than six years on from its launch in 2017) but the brand refuses to put clear policies into the public domain.
Which? found that update policies are dismal across smart TVs.
No brand meets the length of time Which? expects a TV to last on average (6.8 years). Samsung likely leads the way with five years of support from launch.
LG, however, offers just two years guaranteed from launch for many of its sets, so, for example, the OLED 65G26LA TV could lose support after April 2024 despite still being on sale now.
The company offers a woeful two years of guaranteed support from launch across many of its appliances, though it did say that 2024 TVs will have a five-year update policy.
Sky, Panasonic, TCL and Toshiba gave no details of their policies.
This was also true this time for Sony and Hisense, which offered two years from launch and eight years from discontinuation respectively in 2022.
Some Sony smart TVs cost almost £3,000 yet are sold with no indication of how long they will get vital updates and the brand is far from alone in doing this.
Which? experts have seen market-leading Nest thermostats on sale despite official support seemingly ending years ago.
No one wants to find that their smart thermostat stops working in the depths of winter.
Washing machines have an estimated 11-year lifetime yet Samsung and LG offer only five and two years of support from launch respectively.
AEG, Beko, Candy, Hisense, Hoover and Whirlpool reported no defined policy.
AEG did say it was reviewing the new legal requirements and would have a policy soon.
A dishwasher has an estimated life of 13 years. Samsung and LG offer short support lives.
Smeg gave Which? no information about its policies.
This picture is echoed across most big-box appliances, including ovens, tumble dryers and fridge freezers.
While Which? welcomed the forthcoming laws it said it was “disconcerting” to see so many brands waiting until the eleventh hour to provide customers with clear information on support, leaving them in the dark yet again when purchasing smart products that often command premium prices.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) will be in charge of enforcing the Product Security and Telecommunications Act 2022 when it comes into force in the spring.
Which? has called for it to offer clear guidance and ensure the smart product market is adequately prepared ahead of the new laws coming into force.
Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, said: “With new laws to force transparency from manufacturers on the horizon, our investigation has found that a lot of big brands are dragging their heels on confirming vital update support periods for their products.
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“Smart product manufacturers must get their houses in order ahead of new laws coming into force later this year.
“If they don’t then the regulator must be prepared to take strong enforcement action, including issuing fines against companies which are not complying.”
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