> this anti-consumer, anti-business viewpoint will help noone It helps regulators. And it does protect consumers, in some ways. Although it protects the comm

> this anti-consumer, anti-business viewpoint will help noone It helps regulators. And it does protect consumers, in some ways. Although it protects the common good more, which people may disagree about. It just also removes a lot of choices, because the level of compliance makes production not affordable. For example, the EU imposes a lot of rules on electric kettles; safety, eco design / power limitation (saving 4.8--8.7 TWh per year), restriction of hazardous substances. These are perfectly reasonable requirements. Perfectly reasonable death by bureaucracy. You can't easily buy a toxic kettle that might explode and will keep water constantly boiling in the EU. But also, it functions as a market barrier. I'm not sure what factors contribute exactly, but it's practically impossible to get an electric kettle with anything but a bimetallic thermometer, which eventually wears down. Doesn't matter the price. Whereas kettles in China have all kinds of fancy materials (e.g. glass) that don't respect eco design and can be programmed in all sorts of eco unfriendly ways.