New York’s Watered Down ‘Right To Repair’ Bill Goes Live
In late 2022, the state of New York finally passed new right to repair legislation after years of activist pressure. The bill, which went live this week, gives New York consumers the right to fix their electronic devices themselves or have them more easily repaired by an independent repair shop, instead of being forced to only obtain repairs through costly manufacturer repair programs.
In short, the bill requires that some manufacturers of some products provide consumers and indie repair shops access to the tools, parts, and manuals needed to repair some consumer tech products. Estimates by consumer groups are that it should save NY consumers somewhere in the ballpark of around $300 per year:
For many years [repair shops have] been trying to cobble together all of those elements, but big manufacturers have clamped down on access to tools and parts," Chuck Bell, a program director at Consumer Reports, said on WNYC's Morning Edition." They've made it really hard for consumers to do even simple repairs such as replacing a cracked screen, a battery or a hard drive."
Here's the catch: relentless lobbying by numerous tech companies and manufacturers resulted in New York Governor Kathy Hochul aggressively watering down the law before it finally passed. As a result, it doesn't actually cover many of the sectors where annoying repair monopolization efforts are the worst, including cars, medical devices, agricultural hardware, E-bikes, home alarm systems, or power tools.
The law also only covers any tech product sold in New York on or after July 1, 2023. Additional restrictions, added by industry and Hochul at the last second, force consumers to buy entire repair assemblages" instead of individual parts. Hochul didn't really bother to give a useful explanation as to why she lobotomized the law in such a fashion, but the action generally speaks for itself.
Still, any progress is notable for a movement that continues to see widespread, bipartisan public support. All told, Massachusetts, Colorado, New York, Minnesota, Maine and California have all passed some flavor of right to repair legislation, and the momentum shows no sign of slowing down, even if industry has had some notable success ensuring these laws aren't quite living up to their full potential.