‘Put a Stop’ to Manufacturers Limiting 3rd-Party Repairs, Tech Firm Urges FTC

Timothy Pearson, manager of a “secure computer design and manufacturing firm” in Illinois, wants the FTC to “put a stop” to manufacturer restrictions on third-party tech product repairs because they run counter to innovation and promote the discarding of perfectly workable electronics in the waste stream, he commented, as posted Friday to docket FTC-2019-0013. His was the first posted in the agency's inquiry, in preparation for a daylong workshop July 16, into how manufacturer “limitations” on third-party product repairs may affect consumer protections (see 1903130060). Pearson’s firm, which he didn’t name, has “run into significant problems from certain component vendors that overlap with right to repair legislation,” he said. “Certain vendors require all firmware components to be signed with their vendor key in order for the firmware to execute.” The practice “severely impairs the repair capability of their devices,” he said. It also adds e-waste “when the vendor is unwilling to fix known bugs in their firmware,” and instead recommends discarding the device and buying a “newer or more expensive” replacement, he said. When a vendor has virtual exclusivity in “a specific class of computing peripheral, this has the effect of not only stifling repair of entire classes of devices, but also encouraging foreign (usually Asian) companies to innovate where US citizens and corporations are locked out by vendor decisions,” he said. He alleged Nvidia’s “cryptographic signing” forces “continual replacement of otherwise functional" graphics cards. He blamed the “replace and discard” recommendations on its unwillingness, “for commercial reasons,” to fix “firmware-enforced driver bugs.” Nvidia didn’t comment Friday. The FTC is seeking "empirical" data by April 30 on third-party repair limitations to help staff prepare for the July workshop. Comments in the docket are due Sept.16.