The New York State Senate passed legislation on June 3 covering a right to repair for electronic devices. The “Digital Fair Repair Act” is intended to oblige all manufacturers who “sell digital, electronic products within the state” to make spare parts, tools and repair instructions available to consumers and independent workshops.
The law is expected to come into force next year. It must first be signed by Governor Kathy Hochul. This shouldn’t be a hurdle, according to the news website The Verge, the governor supports the Digital Fair Repair Act.
Customers and independent workshops should benefit
Kyle Wiens, CEO of the repair portal iFixit, praised the Digital Fair Repair Act in a blog post. This would allow independent workshops to compete better with manufacturers. He also suspects that repairs will become cheaper for end users.
Activists and consumer advocates have long campaigned for a right to repair. They accuse many manufacturers of making repairs unnecessarily difficult. Some manufacturers have so far provided neither spare parts nor instructions for third parties. The agricultural machinery manufacturer John Deere, for example, became notorious because certain models could only be repaired by authorized workshops. And if you wanted to repair a broken iPhone, for example, you had to visit an Apple Store or an authorized workshop for a long time. Apple only gradually provided instructions and spare parts for independent workshops and this year also for end customers in the USA, probably in order to forestall the relevant laws.
Draft laws in the US and the EU
The Digital Fair Repair Act follows an announcement by the US federal government last year. US President Joe Biden had promised to strengthen competition with a right to repairs within the framework of a regulation and to make manufacturers more responsible.
Other states are also working on right-to-repair laws, but New York is the first to explicitly adopt an electronics repair law. However, the law provides some exceptions. For example, it does not cover vehicles, household appliances, medical devices or radio equipment for public services.
The EU Parliament is also working on a right to repair. A corresponding resolution was passed in April, which specifies, for example, detailed markings on the expected service life and the update period. Consumers should also be better motivated to repair.
signal effect hoped for
While the Digital Fair Repair Act only applies within New York state, iFixit’s Kyle Wiens hopes it will extend beyond state lines: “Given the fact that it’s more difficult to create a state-restricted website, than simply making documentation and software available to everyone, we hope many manufacturers will respond to this law by making these things public.”
(hze)
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