Right to repair
Common obstacles to repair include requirements to use only the manufacturer's maintenance services, restrictions on access to tools and components, and software barriers.
[1][2] Today it's estimated that more than half of the population of the western world has one or more used or broken electronic devices at home that are not introduced back into the market due to a lack of affordable repair.
The combination of annual updates to cars and components made it more difficult for independent repair shops to maintain a stock of parts.
FTC guidelines Title 16, Chapter I, Subchapter B, Part 20 provides guidance and regulations on the labeling of items that have been “rebuilt”, “refurbished”, or “re-manufactured” in order to prevent unfair competitive advantage in selling components in the automobile industry.
Reselling and refurbishing products was confirmed to be legal by the Supreme Court in 2017 in Impression Prods., Inc. v. Lexmark Int'l, Inc..[27] As of 2022, complaints about the longevity and repairability of printers remains.
[29] While the National Automotive Service Task Force (NASTF), an organization supported by the automotive industry, established an online directory for accessing manufacturer information and tools in 2001,[30] a study conducted by the Terrance Group found that around 59% of independent repair services continued to struggle to get access to diagnostic tools and parts from manufacturers.
[29] While initially driven by automotive consumers protection agencies and the automotive after-sales service industry, the discussion of establishing a right to repair for any kind of industrially produced device gained traction as consumer electronics such as smartphones and computers became widely used, alongside advanced computerized integration in farming equipment.
As a result, major automobile trade organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2014 using the Massachusetts law as the basis of their agreement for all 50 states starting in the 2018 automotive year.
[35] Companies like Apple, John Deere, and AT&T have lobbied against Right to Repair bills, and created a number of "strange bedfellows" from high tech and agricultural sectors on both sides of the issue, according to Time.
[50][51] Apple disputed this assumed intention, stating instead that the goal of the software was to prevent overtaxing older lithium-ion batteries, which have degraded over time, to avoid unexpected shutdowns of the phone.
[54] However, the "right to repair" movement argued that the best outcome would be Apple allowing consumers to purchase third-party batteries and possess the instructions to replace it at a lower cost.
[55] In April 2018, the Federal Trade Commission sent notice to six automobile, consumer electronics, and video game console manufacturers, later revealed through a Freedom of Information Act request to be Hyundai, Asus, HTC, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, stating that their warranty practices may violate the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
[58] In April 2018, US Public Interest Research Group issued a statement defending Eric Lundgren over his sentencing for creating the ‘restore disks’ to extend the life of computers.
[60][61][62] In its 2021 recommendations, the Library of Congress further extend the exemption, with favorable right-to-repair considerations for automobiles, boats, agricultural vehicles, and medical equipment, as well as modifying prior rules related to other consumer goods.
The legislation did not address other facets related to right-to-repair, and activists noted that this still limited the consumer's ability to perform their own repairs.
[69] The EU also has directives toward a circular economy which are aimed toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other excessive wastes through recycling and other programs.
The Action Plan included additional standardization that would aid toward rights to repair, such as common power ports on mobile devices.
iFixit had found, like with consumer electronics, some of the more expensive medical equipment had used means to make non-routine servicing difficult for end-users and requiring authorized repair processes.
[71][72] 2020 Massachusetts Question 1 passed to update the previous measure on automobile repair to include electronic vehicle data.
[75] In July 2021, the Biden administration issued an executive order to the FTC[76] and the Department of Agriculture[77] to widely improve access to repair for both consumers and farmers.
[84] On December 28, 2022, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Digital Fair Repair Act, nearly seven months after it had passed the state senate.
[88] In 2023, three business professors cautioned that right-to-repair laws by themselves, could have unintended consequences including incentivizing companies to create cheaper products that are lower-cost and less repairable or durable, or raise the initial sale price of the item.
