Newsom Signs California Right To Repair Bill Into Law

California Governor Gavin Newsom has been on a bit of a tear lately vetoing bills that successfully pass the state legislature, including an effort to legalize psychedelics, an attempt to provide free condoms to high school students, an effort to cap insulin prices at $35, an attempt to provide severance to grocery store workers laid off by mergers, and much more.

Fortunately, it looks like California's new right to repair legislation managed to survive the bloodshed, and was signed into law by Newsom after being passed unanimously by the state Senate and Assembly back in September. The bill (SB244) requires hardware manufacturers to make documentation, tools, and other repair essentials available to consumers and independent repair shops at affordable terms.

Right to repair advocates are, as you might imagine, pretty happy with the passage:

This is a victory for consumers and the planet, and it just makes sense," said Jenn Engstrom, state director of CALPIRG. Right now, we mine the planet's precious minerals, use them to make amazing phones and other electronics, ship these products across the world, and then toss them away after just a few years' use. What a waste. We should make stuff that lasts and be able to fix our stuff when it breaks, and now thanks to years of advocacy, Californians will finally be able to, with the Right to Repair."

California's bill comes on the heels of similar victories in both New York and Minnesota, resulting in more than 20 percent of the country's residents now living under some flavor of right to repair protections. Of course just like New York, lobbyists had some success in exempting some of the worst offenders, including the entire game console, alarm system, and agricultural and forestry equipmentindustries.

Still, it's one instance where U.S. consumer protection is headed in the right direction in a country that seemingly can't lobotomize consumer protection oversight quickly enough for industry's liking.