Norway's Consumer Council Calls for Right to Repair and Antitrust Enforcement - and Mocks 'Enshittification' (forbrukerradet.no)
- Reference: 0180880810
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/03/01/2332240/norways-consumer-council-calls-for-right-to-repair-and-antitrust-enforcement---and-mocks-enshittification
- Source link: https://www.forbrukerradet.no/breakingfree
"It's not just your imagination. Digital services are getting worse," the video concludes — before adding that "Luckily, it doesn't have to be this way." The [3]Consumer Council's announcement recommends :
Stronger rights for consumers to control, adapt, repair, and alter their products and services,
Interoperability, data portability, and decentralisation as the norm, so the threshold for moving to different services becomes as low as possible,
Deterrent and vigorous enforcement of competition law, so that Big Tech companies are not allowed to indiscriminately acquire start-ups, competitors or otherwise steer the market to their advantage,
Better financing of initiatives to build, maintain or improve alternative digital services and infrastructure based on open source code and open protocols,
Reduce public sector dependence on big tech, to regain control and to contribute to a functioning market for service providers that respect fundamental rights,
Deterrent and consistent enforcement of other laws, including consumer and data protection law.
The Norwegian Consumer Council is also joining [4]58 organisations and experts in a letter asking the Norwegian government to rebalance power with enforcement resources and by prioritizing the procurement of services based on open source code. And "Our sister organisations are sending similar letters to their own governments in 12 countries."
They're also sending a second letter to the European Commission with [5]29 civil society organisations (including the EFF and Amnesty International) warning about the risks of deregulation and calling for reducing dependency on big tech.
Thanks to Slashdot reader [6]DeanonymizedCoward for sharing the news.
[1] https://storage02.forbrukerradet.no/media/2026/02/breaking-free-pathways-to-a-fair-technological-future.pdf
[2] https://youtu.be/T4Upf_B9RLQ
[3] https://www.forbrukerradet.no/news-in-english/digital-products-and-services-are-getting-worse-but-the-trend-can-be-reversed/
[4] https://storage02.forbrukerradet.no/media/2026/02/norske-signaturer.pdf
[5] https://storage02.forbrukerradet.no/media/2026/02/signatur-internasjonal.pdf
[6] https://www.slashdot.org/~DeanonymizedCoward
Saw this on Louis Rossman's blog (Score:2)
It may not be as much as we need or hope for, but I still about fell out of my chair laughing. Now I can make things shitty without even getting up!
Re: (Score:1)
This guy gets it.
If you start and forcing antitrust law (Score:2)
It's just a few quick steps to making all the frogs gay! Study it out!
I do wonder what sort of nonsense propaganda would start showing up in my feed if there was a serious chance of antitrust law being enforced. Probably nothing directed at antitrust law enforcement but general propaganda to get the kind of people who don't enforce those laws elected.
Joe Biden had a couple dozen antitrust cases that he was working on before losing the election including a couple to reduce the price of eggs and meat.
Epic video (Score:2)
The video is epic. It's better than most comedy sketch videos.
I hope it moves people to act, especially in Europe. I've more or less given up hope for the USA, whose government is owned by corporations, or for Canada, whose government is only a few steps behind the USA in terms of being owned by corporations.
Re: (Score:2)
I saw the video yesterday when Louis Rossmann showcased it on his channel. I thought it was very funny too. "Make it Shitty" LOL
Re:Great but (Score:5, Insightful)
Education is important. There's a whole generation who doesn't understand enshittification because they were born into shit. It's important that everyone understand that the status quo is not the best there can be.
Re:Great but (Score:5, Informative)
You do not live in Norway.
Most likely you live in America, where this kind of lip service is common. Partly because of the size - 348 million people.
Norway is a much smaller country - about 5.7 million (about 1.6% of the size of the US).
Its more like living in a small town where people know each other and track whether you keep your promises. There is a reason why Norway is in the top 5 happiest countries. The government actually tries to keep people happy.
Note, it helps that they do not have to maintain a crushingly powerful military and the debt that comes with it.
Re: (Score:2)
> ... the debt that comes ...
Correction: ... the debt that comes from obeying billiioniares who manipulate the election process and taxation laws.
Re: (Score:2)
It helps that Norway is an immensely rich country. It's sovereign wealth fund alone is worth over £2tn/$300k per citizen. They don't have to pander to corporate interests.
Re: (Score:3)
The concept of a government that's actually useful and is on the people's side is something alien to most Americans, even when the US government is run by Democrats. It's a sign of how bad politics have been on this side of the country since before Reagan, but it's also why politics are so bad in the US. I genuinely think that if America had, for example, a national health system maintained by the government, people would be more invested in elections, and politicians keener to prove their competence.