California passes repair law requiring spare parts for up to seven years

California is the third state in the US to pass a right-to-repair law. The state has the strictest repair regulations in the US yet. Manufacturers are required to make spare parts available for up to seven years, depending on the price of the product.

The repair bill passed unanimously yesterday in the California State Assembly and Senate, writes Ars Technica, among others. The bill now heads back to the Senate for a minor procedural vote and then signed by the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom. This makes California the third American state to pass an electronics repair law, after Minnesota and New York. Those three laws will come into effect next year. New York will begin in January 2024, followed by Minnesota and California in July.

The law that California passed is stricter than those of New York and Minnesota. The law ensures that repairs must remain possible for longer. For devices costing $50 to $100, spare parts, tools and repair manuals must be available for at least three years. For more expensive devices, this is increased to a minimum of seven years. The law will apply to electronics made and sold after July 1, 2021.

We have been working on this law for some time now was nominated for the first time in January in California. Apple recently announced that it supported that billafter years of lobbying against such laws, writes, among others, The Verge. The company did this in a letter to Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman, who wrote the bill.

In addition to the US, similar laws are also in the making in Europe. In addition to a law that makes USB-C mandatory on smartphones, among other things, the EU is also working on a law that will require manufacturers to offer spare parts, repair manuals and software updates.