Right to Repair

By Nathan Proctor, U.S. PIRG Campaign for the Right to Repair

Apple tells Congress that it doesn’t block independent repair. Right to Repair counters.

The practice of refusing to fix a customer’s product because of previous repairs -- even if those repairs were done without damaging the product — is one of the common ways manufacturers try to discourage repair outside of their “authorized” networks. 

Other examples include companies requiring software to complete repairs and refusing to make that software available; or stocking spare parts at their own repair locations, but not selling you the spare part to do the repair yourself. These restrictions are what gives rise to Right to Repair — a campaign to require companies to sell spare parts and tools and provide service information to product owners and independent repair shops. 

House Judiciary probes Apple on repair restrictions. 

When the only people who have access to the parts, software and instructions necessary for repair are the manufacturers’ authorized shops, those shops become the only options for certain repairs. And when consumers have no options, they have to pay whatever price the manufacturer sets, or get a new device. It’s a kind of monopoly on repair. 

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust is taking a hard look at Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon as part of its “Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets.” One of the specific areas of investigation into Apple is how they treat repair. Earlier this fall, the Committee requested documents and Rep. David Cicilline (RI) sent a list of questions for Apple to answer -- the answers to which I was eager to see. 

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee posted Apple’s response to Rep. Cicilline’s questions. Both U.S. PIRG and iFixit.com posted responses, here are the highlights: 

• Apple says they don’t refuse customers with previous repairs. We cataloged people have experienced the opposite. 
• Apple offers limited repair options, sidesteps specifics, and tried to describe “replacement” as a category of repair. We called for real repair options. 
• Apple said they don’t try to block people from seeking third party repair. We listed examples of how people experience those blocks. 

If we want the ability to choose for ourselves what gets fixed and by whom, we need the force of law. Chances are pretty good that if you are reading this, your state has some pending Right to Repair legislation -- and if it doesn’t, you could be the reason it gets introduced. Take action here, and together we can start fixing our stuff — whether Apple wants us to or not.