States' Right-to-Repair Bills Face Lobbying, Logistical Challenges

Advocates are still searching for the first state to pass an electronic right-to-repair bill, amid continued opposition from industry groups. A California Senate panel delayed hearing testimony on a bill Tuesday. Bills in other states haven't moved. CTIA, CTA, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and others wrote several letters this year opposing state bills.

No state has passed an electronic right-to-repair law yet, but there have been about 10 bills this year, said iFixit Director-Sustainability Elizabeth Chamberlain. Interest this year is “a lot higher,” especially after last year's FTC “Nixing the Fix” report, said the right-to-repair advocate in an interview. Many states “have worked directly with the FTC” to develop bill language, said Chamberlain: Most seek parts, tools and repair documentation from manufacturers. Advocates see the best chances to pass bills in New York state (S-4104/A-7006), California (SB-983), Pennsylvania (SB-998) and Missouri (HB-2141), she said.

California’s bill was scheduled for hearing Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee, but the committee removed it from the agenda before the meeting. The committee will likely hear the bill April 19, said David Stammerjohan, chief of staff to SB-983 sponsor Sen. Susan Eggman (D): “The chair wanted to spend some more time with the bill.” Chamberlain hears Judiciary Committee Chair Thomas Umberg (D) “has concerns about video games,” likely based on lobbying from ESA, she said. “The hope is that pushing back another week will give us time to address his concerns.”

Umberg declined to comment, but ESA worries that proposals "to require mandatory access to the inner workings of video game consoles would allow bad actors to expose the industry and consumers to our biggest threats -- piracy of copyrighted content and user data," said a spokesperson. "Once the copyrighted material and player data is exposed, it cannot be clawed back."

SB-983 would update California’s Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act and require manufacturers to provide parts and tools to consumers and independent shops. It’s “primarily about freeing consumers to choose where and how they get their own property fixed,” said Eggman in a statement. “Increasing access to repair will help with our growing e-waste crisis, reduce costs to consumers, and may provide manufacturers with some incentive to improve their own services. Opponents make vague claims about security, but provide no evidence of potential or real harm.”

Missouri’s HB-2131 “has yet to be referred to committee,” emailed sponsor Rep. Emily Weber (D): “As a Democrat in a supermajority Republican legislature, it can be difficult to navigate legislation through a very partisan landscape.” Weber said big “corporations create a new revenue stream by limiting access to repair facilities.” It has “all but decimated small businesses that want to offer the service of repairing complicated devices,” she said. “It's costly for consumers and for the environment because when components can't be reused, they're often thrown away.”

New York’s S-4104 passed the Senate in 2021, but with the new year is back in that chamber’s Consumer Protection Committee. “We are continuing to have discussions with various stakeholders,” emailed Evan Schneider, deputy chief of staff to sponsor Sen. Neil Breslin (D).

Pennsylvania’s repair bill is pending in the Senate Consumer Protection Committee. Chamberlain doesn’t expect a hearing but hopes to get the bill to the Senate floor in May or June, said the iFixit director: “Full passage this year seems unlikely there based on timeline.”

A Washington state bill came close this year, but legislators ran out of time, said Chamberlain. “We reached the point where the day of the vote had come and … it seemed likely to pass,” she said. “But legislators were up until 6 a.m. the night before debating some other issue … and they arrived the final day of session quite tired without a whole lot of time to do anything.”

Logistical challenges aside, Chamberlain has seen “a lot of lobbying against these bills” from manufacturer lobbying groups including CTA and CTIA, which frequently rehash FTC-debunked arguments about safety, she said. Those two groups declined to comment but joined many letters to state legislators this year opposing right-to-repair state bills. They sent opposition letters using similar language March 31 to Minnesota, March 21 to California, March 9 to Oklahoma, Feb. 21 to Connecticut, Feb. 17 to Massachusetts, Feb. 10 to Georgia, Jan. 27 to Hawaii, Jan. 24 to Pennsylvania and Jan. 5 to Illinois.

Manufacturers would be required to provide “diagnostic and repair information, software, tools, and parts ... without requiring any of the critical consumer protections afforded by authorized repair networks, such as training and competency certification, and putting at risk protections manufacturers have built in for consumer data privacy and security,” protested industry groups in multiple letters: No legislatures have passed such bills “as states have come to the determination that legislating repair rules for manufacturers created more issues for consumers than answers.”