US consumer watchdog FTC wants to tackle reparability

The US FTC argues that large tech companies make it unnecessarily difficult for consumers to repair their devices and is proposing new legislation to make repairability easier and to give consumers repairable options for electronics.

In a report to the US Congress that the FTC has published, the trade authority describes numerous repair restrictions by manufacturers of, among other things, consumer electronics. Examples include the use of glue, which makes it difficult to replace parts, limited availability of spare parts and the unavailability of diagnostic software.

Also, the FTC states that manufacturers regularly break or at least stretch existing warranty laws by developing products in a way that makes them difficult to repair and by hiding repair instructions or hiding behind patents and trademarks. According to the FTC, independent third-party repairers are hindered by, among other things, software lockout.

According to the FTC, there are hardly any good arguments to justify repair limitations of companies. That’s why the FTC is exploring options to make it easier for consumers to repair their devices. It also wants to work with policymakers to develop legislation at the state or national level for the right to repair.

The US isn’t alone in worrying about the right to repair. At the end of last year, the European Parliament passed a resolution with rules on repairability, warranty periods and availability of parts. And France recently introduced mandatory reparability labels for consumer electronics that should make it clearer how easy a device is to repair. We recently wrote a Plus article about this.