Fighting Planned Obsolescence — Programs & Market Deprivatization

The WikiDeal Approach to Obsolescence

WikiDeal addresses planned obsolescence not through protest or regulation alone, but through a concrete market strategy: deprivatize markets through community-owned services, then use the resulting consumer majority to drive fair pricing and environmental accountability.

The approach is built on transition programs — combinations of contracts that guide individuals and communities from current practices (A) to better alternatives (B). These programs use WikiDeal's contract Infrastructure (agreements, alerts, compensatory measures, arbitration) to make the transition structured, measurable, and accountable.

Strategy: Volunteering First

The first step in deprivatizing a market is to start with volunteers. In babysitting, for example, this means people who provide childcare with only a minimum reimbursement of expenses, learning by doing alongside the family rather than replacing the family. These volunteers allow WikiDeal to establish a presence in the market without the overhead costs of a traditional company.

The volunteers gain experience, build their reputation on the platform, and progressively transition into paid micro-s — but always as individuals, not as employees of a company. The key difference: an AI manages the logistics and bureaucracy (scheduling, matching, contracts, payments, reminders), submitted to human validation. There is a double audit: the AI does the work, human assistants verify the AI did a good job.

By combining volunteering with paid services, WikiDeal reduces costs significantly and becomes a major actor in the market. This market presence then contributes to establishing rules, standards, laws and policies that are better adapted to the real needs of consumers and citizens — not shaped by corporate lobbying.

Market Deprivatization Through the Commons

Through this volunteer-first approach, WikiDeal can become a co-leader in specific markets — not by competing on price alone, but by offering a commons-based alternative. Just as Wikipedia deprivatized knowledge, WikiDeal aims to deprivatize commerce: photos (Wikimedia Commons), software (free licensing), and now services and agreements.

The community-driven quality model (peer review, double-checking, continuous improvement) ensures that the service quality matches or exceeds commercial alternatives, while the at-cost Commission model makes it fundamentally more affordable.

From Market Presence to Political Action

Once WikiDeal achieves a significant market presence — when a majority of consumers agree that the WikiDeal commons model delivers better value — the community gains the legitimacy to advocate for political decisions:

• Taxation of planned obsolescence — products designed to fail prematurely should bear the full cost of their environmental impact
• Full lifecycle cost accounting — companies must cover recycling costs including grey energy (the total energy consumed in manufacturing, transport, and disposal)
• Fair pricing rules — the cost of planned obsolescence must be reflected in the product price, creating genuinely fair competition

When consumers have a viable commons-based alternative and companies must internalize their environmental costs, the result is healthy competition — not between who can cut the most corners, but between who can deliver the most durable, useful, and fairly-priced products and services.

Living Lab: Planned Obsolescence Observatory

WikiDeal maintains a dedicated Living Lab (under the Ecopol Living Lab framework) to research, document, and propose solutions for planned obsolescence across sectors. This Living Lab produces:

• Research reports on obsolescence practices by industry
• Comparative studies of product durability
• Policy proposals for fair taxation of obsolescence
• Pilot programs in specific sectors (electronics, clothing, household appliances)
• Community discussions and Open Call themes related to anti-obsolescence contracts

Programs: Concrete Transition Contracts

A WikiDeal "program" is a structured set of contracts designed to transition from practice A to practice B. For example:

• Zero Waste Neighbourhood Program — contracts for waste collection, repair services, composting, and revenue generation from recycled materials
• Repair Before Replace Program — contracts between repair technicians (micro-s) and product owners, with WikiDeal providing the matching, arbitration, and quality assurance
• Shared Ownership Program — contracts for tool libraries, shared appliances, and community workshops

Each program combines multiple contract types (service agreements, lending agreements, volunteer agreements) into a coherent transition pathway, tracked and supported by WikiDeal's AI assistance.

→ See also: Living Labs | Open Call | Babysitting Contract | The 4 Concepts