The Beautyful Ones Are Here: France Outlawed Planned Obsolescence - Can It Halt the Rot?

This working paper argues that planned obsolescence is not merely a consumer protection issue but a colonial mechanism. Drawing on the concept of Dorian Grayisation, a framework delineating the spatial and narrative concealment of harm from those who benefit, it traces how e-waste flows from the Global North to dumping grounds in West Africa and beyond.

It examines France's planned obsolescence law, the EU Right to Repair Directive, the Basel Convention, the Bamako Convention, and the Swiss-Ghana Amendments, and their persistent enforcement failures. The paper proposes interventions including formalising repair economies as strategic green infrastructure and strengthening extended producer responsibility. Drawing on Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, it reframes the question: the repairers, the activists, the children breathing smoke are already here. The question is whether The Beautiful People will ever look.