The archive · Commerce & Marketplaces · Strategic decision · 2014–2026
Back Market bets EU Right to Repair makes refurb mainstream: €3.5B GMV, profitable
Paris marketplace bets the EU's 2024 Right to Repair directive makes refurbished electronics mainstream; 2025 GMV €3.5B+, first global profit.
Back Market
What the business is
Back Market is an online marketplace for refurbished smartphones, laptops and other electronics, where vetted refurbishers sell graded, warrantied 'renewed' devices in 17 markets.
Starting capital：€450M Series E in January 2022 led by Sprints Capital; Tech.eu reported over $1B raised since 2017.
How it started
Founded in Paris in 2014 by Thibaud Hug de Larauze and co-founders, Back Market launched as a marketplace for refurbished electronics when 'renewed' phones were a niche of grey-market sellers. Its bet: trust and regulation would turn refurbished into the first choice for tech purchases, the way second-hand cars became mainstream in the US.
What happened
Back Market expanded to 16 countries by early 2022 with 600+ staff, raised €450M in January 2022 led by Sprints Capital, and kept pushing policy — backing France's anti-waste law and repairability index and later campaigning for EU rules. The EU's Right to Repair directive (2024/1799) entered into force in July 2024, obliging manufacturers to repair goods and requiring member states to apply the new repair rules from 2026.
How it ended up
The bet is landing: 2025 GMV passed €3.5 billion (+32%), customers reached 17 million across 17 markets, and Back Market hit global EBITDA profitability in 2025 after reaching it in Europe in 2024 — as the EU directive it lobbied for comes into application.
Background
Back Market, founded in Paris in 2014, is an online marketplace where vetted refurbishers sell graded, warrantied 'renewed' smartphones, laptops and other electronics. Its founding bet was that refurbished tech could become a mainstream first choice if buyers trusted the quality — a category built on grading, 12-month warranties and seller ratings rather than bargain-bin prices.
The company spent a decade building that trust and lobbying for the rules that would legitimize it: it backed France's anti-waste law and repairability index and campaigned for EU repair rules. The payoff came with Directive (EU) 2024/1799, which entered into force in July 2024 and obliges manufacturers to repair goods, with member states applying the new repair regime from 2026.
The numbers show the bet working at scale: 2025 GMV passed €3.5 billion, up 32% year over year, with 17 million customers in 17 markets, and Back Market reached global EBITDA profitability in 2025 (35% EBITDA margin in France) after profitability in Europe in 2024. The US is the key growth test, and competitors like Refurbed are raising heavily in the same regulatory tailwind.
What has to be true
- Back Market bet that regulation, not just price, would make refurbished electronics a mainstream category.
- It invested in the policy agenda early — repairability indexes and the EU directive — so the rules it lobbied for became the demand driver.
- Trust infrastructure (grading, warranties, seller vetting) is the moat; the directive adds official legitimacy and spare-parts supply.
- Profitability after a decade shows the category needed the regulatory push to cross from niche to consumer default.
What can be applied
Lobby the rulebook you plan to win under: Back Market helped build the repair agenda, then scaled a trust-first marketplace the directive legitimizes — regulation turns a niche into a default.
Aftermath
As of March 2026 Back Market is scaling profitably: more than €3.5B GMV in 2025 (+32%), 17 million customers in 17 markets, and global EBITDA profitability in 2025 with a 35% EBITDA margin in France. The EU Right to Repair directive enters application in member states in 2026, and Back Market continues to campaign for UK and US repair rules; its Fixfest 2025 keynote cited 10 million customers as proof that refurbished and repairable devices are commercially viable.
Sources
- Directive (EU) 2024/1799 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 on common rules promoting the repair of goods
- Refurbished electronics marketplace Back Market goes for the gold, adds another €450 million to the warchest
- Four things we learned from Fixfest 2025
- Back Market's GMV increased 32% in 2025
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