No idea what story you read but it sure wasn't the one in the first post of this topic.
Europe has got nothing to do with it. Europe is a continent, no more and no less. This is something to do with consumer laws in a specific European country, namely The Netherlands. This country is a kingdom, not a state.
The consumer law of The Netherlands takes some of the EU (European Union, not to be confused with either the European Community or Europe!) regulations because they have to as a EU member. That same EU also gives them a certain amount of freedom in what and how to implement those regulations. This has led to a consumer law that at parts is quite different from the EU regulations. This applies to all EU members and thus one should not use EU regulations but use local law instead.
The consumer law does not say anything about warranty (in Dutch: garantie) at all because we use a completely different point of view: product lifetime. A product has to last for a certain amount of time and you get warranty for the entire (expected) lifetime. This is a huge deviation from EU regulations. The Dutch law simply states that a consumer is entitled to a fully working product (in simple English: a product that does what it says it does and without manufacturer issues/mistakes) for the expected lifetime (in Dutch this is called "non-conformiteit").The amount of warranty you get from the manufacturer influences this: if you have a 1 year warranty that is extendible to 3 (AppleCare) then the product should last for at least 3 years). For a notebook the expected lifetime would be 3 years and for a washing machine this is 10 years. The EU regulation speaks of 2 years in both cases. In the first 6 months after purchase the seller has to proof that the product is fully working, after 6 months the consumer has to proof the product does not and the manufacturer/seller is to blame (within reason). This is the same as in the EU regulations. Part of that law also states when you are entitled to a new product, a refund and when the product may be repaired (in all cases this is entirely free for the customer).
The reason for the consumer laws is quite simple: there have been many lawsuits concerning consumer rights and downright criminal acts from certain sellers (scams) as well as misleading commercials. Going to court in The Netherlands is not easy and very costly. Not to mention that it adds more cases to already very busy courts. So what the consumer laws do is lay out the rules for buying and selling products and services in order to prevent silly and/or complex lawsuits concerning products/services. It has rules for manufacturers, sellers AND consumers. To give an example: consumers have to do their homework. They have to get themselves informed about the product/service before buying. Something similar also applies to the seller: they have to inform the consumer about the product/service. As you can see it is trying to create a certain balance. Consumers don't have the big financial funds like companies (it's basically David vs Goliath) have so they get a bit more protection.
I hope people do realise that not every company uses the same definition of "refurbished". Some companies take in the broken devices, look at what is broken and fix it. Others do a complete overhaul of the device and replace other components just in case (think of things like seals, o-rings, etc.). It's more like a combination of refurbishment and a revision. The biggest difference is in testing. Most only test the repairs, not the entire device; others do some simple quick tests and some (like the ones doing the complete overhaul) really do extensive tests to make sure the device really is as good as new. Due to economics most do very simple tests and thus most refurbished products aren't free of defects. This is specially the case for products with water damage. Too often the defects occur only months after the damage was inflicted. That means that any testing will not pick it up and thus the device is falsely labeled "as good as new".
In The Netherlands there is hardly a culture of refurbished products like in the USA. A refurbished products is considered the same as a repaired product as that is what usually happens to those products in The Netherlands. There still is a risk of other defects. The biggest issue with refurbished products is the warranty. The warranty is much lower than for a new product. If you're lucky you get 1 year but all to often it will be no more than 3 months. On a new product you get the 2 year warranty (per EU regulation) or more (per Dutch consumer law). That's why it is better to buy new than to buy refurbishment and also the reason why refurbished is cheaper than new.
As for the ruling: the court looked at the consumer laws and in some cases they ask the European Court of Justice (ECJ) because they want to know how to interpret the EU regulations (for this ruling to looked at a previous statement by the ECJ in a case against the German company called Quelle; this is a well known and often referred to case). In this case the law stated that the consumer was entitled to a new product, not refurbished one. The court does not look and may not look at how sensible a law/regulation is because that is a task for the government (the Dutch system is based on trias politica). They also do not look at what the rule says but also at the reasoning behind the rule. This allows for a thief to be convicted even though the stolen goods have been returned by him.
The ruling does explicitly state that Apple deemed the iPhone unrepairable. Something that is unrepairable is also not able to be refurbished (refurbished requires repairs which is impossible). Furthermore Apple stated that the iPhone falls under its warranty regulation and not the so called "non-conformiteit" (the entitlement for a fully working product) because you have to look at when the iPhone was sold and if it functioned properly at that time which it did.
Hopefully this gives a better understanding of both Dutch consumer law, how it relates to the EU (not Europe!) and the issue plus ruling in this case. I tried to explain it as simple as I could, there will be things left out and the wording can be too simplistic.
