iFixit Sees Hope for State Electronics ‘Right to Repair’ Bills That Some in Tech Industry Oppose
“Right to repair” bills for consumer tech products were introduced this year in several state legislatures that would require manufacturers to sell repair parts to consumers and independent repair shops. That the bills haven’t progressed very far so far doesn’t worry Kyle Wiens, CEO and co-founder of iFixit, one of right to repair's biggest advocates, he told us. “It’s a new concept, and these things take time.” Some tech and consumer electronics interests oppose the bills.
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Wiens draws encouragement from the “really good reactions in a lot of places” that the right to repair bills inspired, he said. “There have been a lot of co-sponsors on a lot of bills this year.” Apple “primarily” has been the biggest opponent of right to repair for electronics, he said. Apple doesn’t like the legislation “because they’re making so much money on phone repairs,” said Wiens. Company representatives didn’t comment.
A New York bill typifies similar legislation on right to repair introduced in about a half-dozen other states. Most, like S-618, would also require manufacturers to make their diagnostic and service manuals available to the public. Each of the bills generally would empower a state's attorney general to go after manufacturers that violate the statute with fines and other sanctions, while also protecting manufacturers against the disclosure of trade secrets.
All the bills are modeled closely after the automotive right to repair legislation in Massachusetts that voters there approved overwhelmingly in a November 2012 ballot initiative, Wiens said. “The Massachusetts bill has been in place for quite a while, and it was fairly carefully drafted.” The legislation there is “pretty darn well written,” so framers of the electronics right to repair bills in the various states weren’t interested in “reinventing the wheel,” he said. Their aim was to "take the Massachusetts auto bill that we know works and adapt it to electronics,” he said.
CTA, CTIA, CompTIA and NetChoice wrote a joint letter to the Nebraska legislature last year urging defeat of the state's "Fair Repair Act" measure on various grounds, including that it wrongly imposes government regulation on the relationship between OEMs and equipment repair facilities. CTA stands by its opposition, a spokesman emailed us Monday. Representatives of the other groups didn't comment. The 2017 version of the Fair Repair Act, largely identical to the 2016 bill, got a March 9 hearing before the Judiciary Committee but since has stalled.
The Entertainment Software Association, which represents videogame interests, also opposes right to repair legislation and fought to kill the Fair Repair Act in Nebraska, an ESA spokesman emailed us Monday. ESA's "root concern" is that right to repair "will weaken basic rights that consumers have to security and privacy, as well as endangering intellectual property rights," Hewitt said. "Hackers are constantly trying to break into smartphones, computers, servers and other electronics. Any weakening of the current standards, including sharing sensitive diagnostic tools and proprietary hardware data, could expose customers to risk. Manufacturers also have strong concerns about unauthorized independent service providers who may take risks or cut corners and provide service without training or following safety standards."