AppleInsider Staff
Some 17 states have now introduced so-called "right to repair" legislation despite strident opposition from consumer electronics manufacturers, including Apple.
If passed, the laws would force manufacturers to provide essentials like repair manuals and spare parts to the public. Proponents argue that this would more readily allow individuals and small business to repair their own devices, potentially saving money and lowering their environmental impact.
Legislation is currently pending in Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington.
That's up from just five states last March. Lobbying group Repair.org puts that down to increased scrutiny thanks to recent issues like Apple's throttling of older iPhones with flagging batteries.
Apple, alongside a number of other firms, has stridently opposed this action. The company argues that repairs should be performed only by authorized technicians with the proper training to give consumers a consistent experience and protect the company's intellectual property.
Notably, Apple told officials in Nebraska last year that it would support right to repair legislation if phones were exempted.
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Amber Neely
25 Comments
Expect phones in those states to blow up and burn people on a regular basis because of idiots performing their own repairs.
It seems to me that forcing Apple (and other manufacturers) to basically support repairs they have no control over will ultimately hurt Apple’s reputation—substandard repairs will negatively impact people’s perception of the product. Even if someone thinks a repair is good enough for themselves it still takes Apple’s control over their reputation out of their own hands. On the surface it seems like a nice idea to give consumers options, but it’s also questionable.
As much as I would like to be able to fix my own stuff more easily, I wonder if this kind of legislation would provide incentive for manufacturers to make their products less fixable. That said, less fixable isn't necessarily a bad thing if it is more reliable (no need to repair) and can be recycled efficiently... That'll learn 'em!
Slightly OT: I'm recalling in more than a few episodes of Star Trek TNG, some sort of super sophisticated device is cracked open in the field while the character is isolated from the ship, on some planet or in a cave, and it somehow gets fixed or modified to do something else -- by hand (and no repair manual)! Pretty good iFixit score I suppose.