Apple Realizes It’s Swimming Upstream, Now Supports California Right To Repair Bill

Eager to maintain a lucrative repair monopoly over its products, Apple has had a long history of bullying independent repair shops. Apple lobbyists have also falsely claimed that making its products easier and less expensive to repair would result in vast untold consumer privacy and security nightmares, turning states that consider right to reform" legislation into lawless meccas for hackers.

But given the immense, bipartisan popularity of right to repair reform, Apple (like Microsoft) appears to be having a change of heart.

Apple has come out in support of California's right to repair bill (SB 244), which requires that every manufacturer of consumer technology products make repair documentation, parts, and tools available to consumer and independent repair shops on fair and reasonable terms." The goal: lower consumer costs and annoyance, and reduced environmental waste.

Apple previously opposed the bill. But in a letter to California legislators obtained by 404 Media, Apple said it now supports the legislation:

Apple writes in support of SB 244, and urges members of the California legislature to pass the bill as currently drafted. We support SB 244 because it includes requirements that protect individual users' safety and security, as well as product manufacturers' intellectual property. We will continue to support the bill, so long as it continues to provide protections for customers and innovators."

There were some concessions made to get the bill to this point. SB244 doesn't include technology like game consoles, where repair monopolization by Sony and Microsoft has been common. It also only applies to consumer products, which excludes a whole bunch of sectors (medical, agricultural) where repair monopolies are every bit as bad. And the bill only applies to products sold after July 2021.

Several states have now passed such reforms. In some states, like New York, the legislation has been progressively watered down to the point of near-uselessness. Still, right to repair activists say the progress they've seen getting state bills passed is a notable success, any way you look at it:

I would think that passage in California means there'd be a lot of pressure on manufacturers to kind of set the line there and say no farther,' because we've now proven to them we can pass laws and change the ways they have to operate," Proctor said. This shows state advocacy is a good way to deal with large problems that are hard to get through Congress. It shows you can really spread big tech thin if you have a real grassroots network behind you."

Despite waves of well-funded opposition, SB244 passed the California State Senate 28-0 last June. The bill hasn't yet passed the CA State Assembly, but Apple's support makes success far more likely.