By: Jason Rosenzweig
Our electronics break constantly. Your battery isn’t as good as it used to be. Your screen breaks. Your keyboard deteriorates. Because of all of these things, you have to go to the manufacturer of your device so they repair or replace it. These repairs, if available, cost an arm and a leg, so you may be left wondering whether or not there is a better option. That is where the right to repair movement comes in. Right to repair is a movement that has been gaining traction over the last decade that has two major philosophies. The first is that companies should provide official parts for their products and that they shouldn’t design their products in ways that intentionally hinder repair. The second is that they should provide product schematics as well as repair guides that are readily available to all consumers. Part of the reasoning behind this is the environmental effect that unnecessary electronic waste from replacing repairable products causes, and another part of the reasoning is to protect consumers from spending too much.
However, manufacturers of these products believe that the right to repair movement will cause harm for the image of their business and also for consumers. They argue that repairing products is an incredibly dangerous job that can only be achieved safely by technicians trained by the company themselves. They also argue that third party repair companies will repair devices poorly, hurting the reputation of the original device manufacturer with the consumer believing that the repair part provided was faulty.
There are many responses given to these points and you could go on and on about the details of these debates but that isn’t exactly useful. Instead, I am going to look at various right to repair legislative efforts on national, international, and state scopes.
One of the jurisdictions most friendly to the idea of right to repair is the EU. In March of last year, new rules took effect in the EU that required manufacturers of washing machines, hair dryers, refrigerators, and displays such as TVs to provide support to repair products for 10 years. While this is far from what right to repair activists would prefer — smartphones and laptops are what contribute the most to unnecessary electronic waste — this is still a massive step in the right direction and the EU parliament is working on expanding this requirement to cover more consumer electronics such as laptops and smartphones.
In the US, there have been many state initiatives in support of right to repair. For example, in the 2020 election, ballot initiative one in Massachusetts was about the right to repair cars. The idea was to provide diagnostics data to independent repair shops with the consent of the owner of the car. However, car manufacturers lobbied hard against the initiative, making attack ads saying that sexual predators would be able to easily stalk their victims if this initiative passed. In the election, voters approved the measure with 75% of the vote.
You cannot talk about the right to repair movement, especially in the US, without talking about Louis Rossmann. Rossmann runs an independent repair shop in New York City and posts videos voicing his opinions on right to repair on YouTube. He has also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for initiatives and testified in front of multiple state legislatures in support of right to repair legislation.
Right to repair is clearly a movement that is gaining traction amongst many consumers. However, many lawmakers aren’t overcoming the lobbying pressure of massive companies which is why right to repair legislation has been moving so slowly. Even without this legislation, companies are starting to take steps in the correct direction. While Apple’s authorized repair program is seen as flawed by many and heavily criticized, Apple announced a self service repair initiative where they would release parts and manuals for some of their laptops and iPhones. It remains to be seen how expensive these parts will be or if there will be some catch, but this is one of the biggest wins the right to repair movement can get. As time progresses, we may see more companies follow suit and we will in all likelihood see more countries pass right to repair legislation, so keep your eyes peeled.
Bibliography:
"Apple Announces Self Service Repair." Apple Newsroom, 17 Nov. 2021, www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/11/apple-announces-self-service-repair/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.
Hughes, Owen. "Right to Repair Moves Forward for Your Broken Devices. But Campaigners Want to Go Much Further." TechRepublic, 4 Mar. 2021, www.techrepublic.com/article/right-to-repair-moves-forward-for-your-broken-devices-but-campaigners-want-to-go-much-further/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.
Young, Colin A. "New TV Ad Makes Link Between Mass. Question 1 and Predators." The Herald News, 28 July 2020, www.heraldnews.com/news/20200728/new-tv-ad-makes-link-between-mass-question-1-and-predators. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.
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