It is news that will cheer anyone who has struggled to get a vacuum cleaner, fridge or TV repaired only to be told it’s probably cheaper to buy a new one. A new government decree in France is forcing manufacturers to tell consumers how long their appliances will last. French companies will also have to inform consumers how long spare parts for the product will be available, or risk a fine of up to €15,000 (£11,000).

And if this wasn’t enough, from next year faulty products – whether it’s mobile phones to washing machines – will have to be repaired or replaced for free within two years of being purchased.

The French government hope this will help to combat “planned obsolescence” – the practice of designing products with restricted life spans to ensure consumers will buy more.

It’s hardly a new idea. In the 1920s, the Phoebus cartel had the bright idea to create bulbs that would break after 1,000 hours instead of providing the 1,500-2,000 hours that previous bulbs managed. Before the advent of “fast fashion” – planned obsolescence in action – it was the basis for The Man in the White Suit, a 1951 Ealing comedy starring Alec Guinness as an inventor who makes a dirt-repelling everlasting fibre, and promptly finds himself a target for trade unionists and mill owners who fear he will destroy the textile business with one perfect product.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The lightbulb – a eureka moment for planned obsolesence. Photograph: Tom Payne/Alamy

Today, it’s hard not to become paranoid when you start thinking about the appliances we use – currently I am incensed at having to buy yet another electric toothbrush because the battery can’t be changed. As with various laptops and the sleekest mobile phones, they are sealed in, so when the battery dies it’s easier to chuck the whole thing away than try to repair it. And don’t get me started on children’s toys made from cheap materials that break as soon as you look at them – or the fact that I am peering at my iPad through a web of cracks.

Manufacturers say there are valid reasons for all of this. Sealed batteries, for instance, make for a thinner product than one that can be upgraded or fixed, while tamper-proof screws can be safer.

But Janet Gunter from Restart, a charity that aims to get people fixing and tinkering again, says bad design, or cheap materials, can also be blamed for limited lifespans. In their free community repair events they have seen examples of a fuse being soldered into hair straightening irons, so it cannot be changed. “There are a couple of barriers to people fixing things,” she says. “Things are not designed to be taken apart any more.” She points out that some new phones don’t have removable batteries or that memory chips on tablets and phones are soldered on to circuit boards: you can’t upgrade them easily, so once they run out or fill up, you’re stuck.

The charity even claims to have encountered a “kill chip” designed by manufacturers to disable printers so that “after a certain amount of print-outs, ink will have leaked in a way that makes the printer unviable”. Will French law make planned obsolesence obsolete? Peut-être.