The right to repair movement advocates for legislation that requires manufacturers to not only allow and enable, but to facilitate third-party repairs. For example, if your phone battery dies, the idea is that you could get it repaired more conveniently and cheaply if the phone manufacturer wasn’t the only game in town. (We all know how expensive this can get.) The concept of “right to repair” may seem quite logical and be taken for granted by some, but the reality is that there’s plenty of pushback by manufacturers due to a variety of implications. When the right to repair concept isn’t an option, end users of various devices, from smartphones to tractors, could find themselves having to buy replacements because basic repairs aren’t accessible or affordable.
Manufacturers tend to favor limited right to repair, saying that it poses unjustifiable risks to both manufacturers and consumers. These risks include theft of intellectual property (IP), equipment malfunction due to unauthorized or low-quality repairs, and security breaches if safety protocols are bypassed by third-party repair shops.
However, a 2021 report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stated that manufacturers’ claims about user safety and security were generally flawed. Some manufacturers also claimed that it would be difficult to make relevant data accessible to third parties, but other manufacturers had already done so before being legally required to. Since this didn’t significantly affect costs for either manufacturers or consumers, it wasn’t considered to be a valid argument against the right to repair. The FTC did acknowledge the validity of some copyright implications, though, saying that certain repair restrictions could still be justified when protecting IP rights.
So, what does this mean for consumers? In the United States and the European Union (EU), strong right to repair legislation already exists to protect consumer interests. For example, in the US, residents of all 50 states (as well as all independent repair shops) have the right to access the same tools, parts, manuals, and documentation as manufacturers. In other words, manufacturers have to make these things available to third parties to facilitate repairs (unless doing so would violate copyright law).
Right to repair laws in the EU aren’t as broad compared to those in the US, but recent legislation has placed additional requirements on manufacturers to prioritize repair over replacement. Consumers also have more options if they want to have their devices fixed by third-party repair shops, although this only applies to 10 product categories.
In other parts of the world, such as India and China, right to repair is either in its infancy, or doesn’t exist at all, legally speaking. In 2023, India launched a right to repair online portal, where companies can voluntarily upload information such as customer service phone numbers, warranty data, and service center addresses (all of which is publicly available online). Unfortunately, in terms of actual legislation, very little has been done to protect consumers’ right to repair in India. China has taken even fewer steps to promote right to repair; manufacturers have a legal obligation to repair their products, but there’s no law establishing consumers’ rights to make repairs of their own.
It’s yet uncertain how most manufacturers of products that use batteries will react, there appears to us to be a few possible scenarios.
Scenario 1: Engineer and produce higher quality products that ensure fewer products need repair, or otherwise exceed the threshold set forth in legislation that would preclude the need for their products to fall under right to repair legislation. For example, batteries that can exceed a certain cycle life may be deemed so good that 3rd party repairs are not required to be enabled.
Scenario 2: Remove batteries from their products. While this is not always an option and may be a less likely choice for most companies and products, a wired keyboard may be a more competitive option in the market if wireless keyboards require scenario 1 to be required.
Scenario 3: Engineer products that can utilize consumer-accessible standard-sized batteries such that any battery issue can be easily handled by a customer.
When it comes to how these possible scenarios may affect batteries, it seems likely that battery manufacturers may see a tailwind to their businesses. There will be demand for better batteries to achieve performance thresholds mentioned in scenario 1 and this will bolster innovation. There may also be increases in overall demand for batteries driven by scenario 3.
Right to repair is a little more complicated than the ability to have your cracked phone screen replaced by a repair shop of your choice. What does this mean for someone who’s unfamiliar with right to repair legislation? These are a couple of the most frequently asked questions.
Copyright law protects a wide array of products from piracy, hacking, and other forms of misuse, which can lead to some confusion about the legality of certain repairs. If a copyrighted software program stops working, is it legal to alter it in the course of making repairs? If a software update affects a device’s performance, can a repair shop legally bypass the update?
In the majority of cases, consumers and independent repair shops don’t have to worry about violating copyright law when repairing devices. This is because of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), which makes repair legal under copyright law.
Of course, there are exceptions. For example, Section 1201 of the DMCA allows manufacturers to add encryption that prevents unauthorized access to firmware. This measure is meant to protect copyrighted media from being illegally copied, but it also blocks access to repair. The good news is that according to the US Copyright Office (USCO), Section 1201 should only apply to devices or software that could be susceptible to piracy, such as DVDs, paid video or music subscription services, etc.
Unbiased studies on right to repair show that it has a number of positive effects for consumers, both direct and indirect.
Even with all of these benefits, it’s important for consumers to stay informed of the potential risks of having their devices repaired by third parties. Whether the repairs are done on hardware or software, an unqualified repair shop could cause future malfunctions, vulnerability to hackers, or sub-par performance. If you need to have a device or piece of equipment repaired, make sure the work is done by someone with the right qualifications and authorizations from the product manufacturers. Not all repair shops will be created equal.
