Oregon poised to implement the strictest right-to-repair law in the nation

The right-to-repair movement notched another victory recently, when the Oregon state legislature passed a bill mandating that electronics and appliance manufacturers make it easier for broken products to get fixed.

The Beaver State legislation, which now awaits a signature from the governor, goes a step further than existing laws in places like New York and California by blocking the use of software parts pairing, a process through which a computer program identifies a device’s component parts. The practice can “prevent access to repair or confuse the consumer about a third-party repair’s efficacy,” according to Consumer Reports (CR), which praised the bill’s passage.

Right-to-repair bills, including Oregon’s, typically include provisions that require product-makers to document how their devices and parts work so it’s possible for third parties to fix them.

“We have supported legislative efforts to protect a consumer’s right to repair their own products because doing so reduces waste, saves consumers money, and offers consumers more choice,” Justin Brookman, CR’s tech policy director, said in a statement. “With software becoming an essential element in today’s products, Consumer Reports backs laws that prevent software from becoming a tool to enforce manufacturers’ monopolies on the repair process.”

Last year, 33 states and the territory of Puerto Rico mulled right-to-repair measures during their legislative sessions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

As states broadly consider such measures, they’re also expanding the concept to include things that go. In 2020, Massachusetts passed a ballot measure that ensures third parties can access digital information about vehicles, making their problems easier to diagnose. And Colorado has passed laws to help consumers repair their own wheelchairs and agricultural equipment.

This concept isn’t controversial among constituents: As a 2019 survey found, 71% of US voters support such legislation, and only 7% said they’d be against it. Industry, however, can be a different story. Big names like Apple and Google have publicly supported tech repair bills, but the auto manufacturing industry filed suit against the Massachusetts ballot measure.