Consumers Have ‘Legal Right’ to DIY Repair, Says Advocate

Prospects appeared to immediately dim the hope that Apple’s launch of a Self Service Repair program for consumers who feel “comfortable” servicing their own iPhones (see 2111170034) would help thaw the icy relations between right-to-repair advocates seeking legislation to liberalize do-it-yourself repairs and tech companies fighting against proposals for loosened restrictions in every state house that has introduced them. Apple said it will deploy the program through a new and dedicated online store early next year, offering more than 200 individual parts and tools, “enabling customers to complete the most common repairs” on models in the iPhone 12 and 13 lineups.

CTA greeted the Apple news by saying it “welcomes manufacturer efforts to promote self-service repair of complex, highly integrated, and world-changing consumer technology products.” As manufacturers “assume more responsibility for product safety and security long after their devices are sold to consumers, it’s important to find the balance between safety and empowering consumers to repair their devices,” said Walter Alcorn, CTA vice president-energy and sustainability policy.

Alcorn’s defense of the manufacturer’s role in the fate of devices long after consumers unbox them at home brought renewed pushback among right-to-repair advocates who have argued throughout the debate that tech companies deserve no such role. “I understand what Walter is saying,” emailed Nathan Proctor, senior director of U.S. PIRG’s campaign for the right to repair. “The public, consumers, have a role to play in setting the ‘balance’ for their products as well.”

As important as “the manufacturers' voices are” in the debate around do-it-yourself repair, “we live in a democracy where the public has the power to set the balance around repair how we see fit,” said Proctor. “Manufacturers' reluctance to treat repair with the respect it deserves has caused people to wield our democratic systems to set a new baseline for repair access.”

Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of the Repair Association, finds “deeply flawed” the “basic premise that manufacturers are taking more responsibility for product safety and security long after their devices are sold to consumers,” she said. “It’s simply not true” that OEMs are willing to take responsibility for mistakes that happen during self-repair, “and they never have,” she said.

Every end-user license agreement, warranty or contract “ever written by competent counsel always disclaims exactly these risks” associated with self-repair, said Gordon-Byrne. “For good reason -- having responsibility is expensive in court. Consumers flatly have the legal right to repair their purchases as a right of ownership.” Legislation being pursued in the states “makes it practical for consumers to enjoy their existing rights,” she said.

IFixit hails Apple’s Self Service Repair launch as “a very meaningful step,” emailed CEO Kyle Wiens. “Extending the lifespan of our electronics is essential for the future of the planet,” he said. “We simply can't afford to invest the carbon required to manufacture these smartphones and then toss them away every 18 months.”

Consumer Intelligence Research Partners canvassed 2,000 U.S. consumers for the year ending in September about the physical condition of the iPhones they were discarding for a new one. “Based on what consumers say about the condition of the old iPhones they are retiring,” said CIRP, “it seems that relatively few owners would use the Self Service Repair program to postpone their next iPhone purchase.”

Notwithstanding the iFixit CEO’s praise for the Apple program, the right-to-repair advocacy company also worries about its basic flaws, emailed iFixit Director-Sustainability Elizabeth Chamberlain. Apple’s decision to launch the initiative “doesn't secure our right to repair,” she said. “If Apple chooses to provide parts, tools, and guides, they can also choose to stop providing those things.”

The iPhone maker has made “no commitment” to sustain the program once it launches, “and they have not suggested that they will make self-service repair available for all parts on all devices,” said Chamberlain. A “legally secured right to repair,” on the other hand, “will keep DIY fixers from being subject to manufacturers' whims.”

Apple’s program is a breakthrough, coming as it does from a company that has lobbied hard for repair restrictions for so long, said Chamberlain. But “as big a step as this is toward repairability, it makes no moves toward repairable product design,” she said. “We continue to have grave concerns about the repairability of Apple products.” IFixit hopes Apple “will back up this support of DIY repair with improvements in the repairability of their product designs,” she said. Apple didn’t comment.