To say that Europe does not have the skills or facilities to build and manufacture tech products is absolutely risible and a contemptible attempt to misdirect/misinform… Must I remind you that Nokia has a European phone factory? Perhaps it should be pointed out to you, that UK based computer designer and manufacturer Raspberry Pi, didn’t think that Europe had an inability to manufacture digital technology… they opened a factory in Britain and did just that.
It is bad enough that Fairphone builds it product in one of the most unfree and despotic nations in the world, but to try and claim that it is because it can’t be done in Europe, is outrageous, contemptible, deceitful, and utterly false.
There is one reason, and one reason only that Fairphone manufacture in China instead of Europe, and that is profit.
I refuse to buy a product that extols European based fairness as its primary selling point, whilst simultaneously setting up its manufacturing plant in one of the most exploitative, despotic and environmentally damaging nations in the world, just for a bit of extra profit.
It is nothing short of disgusting, and Fairphone should be shamed and named for it, and customers should steer clear of it and boycott them until they change this nonsense, and bring manufacturing home to Europe.
The environmental cost alone of building a product on the other side of the world (in one of the world’s biggest polluting states) and then shipping it halfway around the world, is disgusting… And for what? A few extra bucks on the bottom line on the backs of cheap labour? That doesn’t seem “fair” to me!
Thanks, but no thanks; I refuse to buy into the deception, and will boycott Fairphone until they grow the f*** up, and I urge others to do the same.