According to EU regulations, every smartphone is supposed to receive software updates for many years. That makes sense so users don't have to throw away a working device. But Motorola is trying to get around this with some legal fine print.

However, EU regulation introduced in June 2025 requires that all smartphones sold on the European market receive software updates for a long time. The directive does not specify a minimum price for this rule to take effect. The EU explicitly states that software updates must be available for five years after a device is no longer sold.

Motorola’s lawyers have apparently studied that legal text closely, and now the company appears to be ready to confront the EU Commission. Their interpretation is that the EU does not actually require updates to be provided at all, but only requires that if updates are offered, they must be free of charge. However, we are not aware of any case in which a smartphone manufacturer has ever charged money for security patches.

  • outbloodyrageous@mander.xyzEnglish
    21·
    5 days ago

    I’ve seen the speculation that Motorola is one of the OEM under consideration by Graphene OS team for future device support. Motorola’s history of policies regarding security updates doesn’t really support that speculation tbf

    • arcterus@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      6·
      5 days ago

      Yeah, I’d be kind of surprised if it’s them, but then again most OEMs have issues with updates so who knows. If we were just talking about hostility to custom OSes, the choices have gotten pretty slim too (basically Sony, OnePlus, and Nothing, with some smaller OEMs and one-off unlockable devices from others).