California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law today making California the third US state to approve right-to-repair legislation. When the law goes into effect in July 2024, electronics manufacturers will be legally required to make repair parts, tools, documentation, and software available to consumers and independent repair shops. Supporters say it’s the most expansive, consumer-friendly right-to-repair legislation passed to date.
“The era of manufacturers’ repair monopolies is ending, as well it should be,” iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens said in a statement. “Accessible, affordable, widely available repair benefits everyone.” IFixit has been a leading voice advocating for the right-to-repair legislation for years.
Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment.
Califorina’s legislation, called Senate Bill 244, goes further than its predecessors in Minnesota and New York by mandating a longer time period where manufacturers must provide access to repair resources. Manufacturers of electronics between $50-$99, for example, will need to make repair resources available for three years. For products over $100, manufacturers will need to make repair resources available for a whopping seven years. The legislation will cover most consumer electronics and appliances made and sold after July 1, 2021. That means California could have the ability to request repair tools for their iPhone or dishwasher as late as 2030.
This wasn’t California’s first right-to-repair effort, but it was its strongest. The bill, which received the support of environmental groups, repair shops, and even Apple, passed the California state assembly in a unanimous 50-0 vote. Prior to that, the bill passed the state senate with a unanimous 38-0 vote. California’s massive population means this law could potentially lead to more repair tools and resources leaking out and being made available to consumers nationwide. The law also has the potential to induce a so-called “California Effect” where manufacturers simply make providing repair resources a standard nationwide so that they can avoid navigating between complicated legal distinctions from state to state. Around 45 other states have considered some form of right-to-repair legislation, according to Repair.org.
Expansive as it is, California’s law does have several key carve-outs, namely game consoles and alarm systems. The legislation claims gaming devices like an Xbox Series X or a PlayStation 5 are not “all-purpose” computers, despite them seeming to fulfill many of the requirements. Nathan Proctor, the head of RtR initiatives at U.S. Public Interest Research Group previously told Gizmodo video game companies specifically requested an exemption during negotiations over worries customers could jailbreak their devices. Similarly, fire protection systems or other electronics defined as an “alarm system” were not included and does not fall under the legislation’s definition of an “electronic or appliance product.”
Last-minute changes and oddball expeditions aren’t new to the right-to-repair battles. In New York, independent repair advocates cried foul of late-stage amendments that they say created various loopholes and let original equipment manufacturers off the hook for providing the public with passwords, security codes or materials to override security features. The law also lets OEM’s provide users with “assemblies of parts” rather than the single, specific components they may require for a repair.
Maybe the oddest thing about California’s beefy right-to-repair legislation is its support from Apple, who up until very recently straddled the line between Darth Vadar and Satan in the eyes of independent repair shops. In a letter sent to state senator Susan Talamantes Eggman’s staff seen by CNBC, Apple’s policy team said it would support the bill, so long as it required repair shops to disclose “the use of non-genuine or used parts.”
“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,” the company said in the letter according to CNBC.
Apple’s support for the legislation represents part of a larger shifting of the tides for the once unapologetically anti-right-to-repair company. In late 2021, the company shocked many by announcing it would begin selling customers the parts and tools they need to repair their devices at home as part of its Self-Service Repair program.