Fixing Your Electronics Just Got Easier in California and Minnesota
New right-to-repair laws will help promote more convenient repairs for a range of electronics and home appliances. Here’s what you should know.
As the owner of a phone and laptop repair shop in San Diego, Tony Heupel says he often faces roadblocks. Products seem intentionally designed to be difficult to fix, he says, and it’s not always easy to access the right parts and tools.
In fact, Heupel keeps material up on the wall in his store that helps educate customers about the limitations that independent repair shops like his face. “If I didn’t have these blocks, my job would be so much easier,” he says.
Thankfully, frustrations like Heupel’s may now become less common in California and Minnesota.
New state laws go into effect today that require manufacturers of electronics, like cell phones and computers, as well as a range of home appliances and other gadgets, to make repair parts, tools, and documentation available to the public, including to independent repair shops.
“Every American should have the right to repair the products they already own,” says Stacey Higginbotham, an advocate and policy analyst at Consumer Reports, “and we are working to make that possible.”
Of course, these laws don’t just benefit repair shop owners. They benefit anyone looking to fix their stuff, including those tech-savvy enough to want to fix something on their own.
“More competition in the repair market means repairs are cheaper and more widely available for everyone,” says Elizabeth Chamberlain, director of sustainability at iFixit, an online seller of repair resources that has advocated alongside Consumer Reports to pass right-to-repair legislation.
What Products Do the Laws Cover?
California and Minnesota’s new laws cover the kinds of digital electronic devices you can purchase at a store like Best Buy, such as smartphones, computers, and tablets. “Our goal is to cover anything with a chip,” Chamberlain says.
Specifically, the Minnesota law—considered the most comprehensive right-to-repair law to date—covers “digital electronic equipment,” which also includes appliances, gadgets, and certain commercial equipment, like HVAC systems. California’s law broadly covers “electronic and appliance products,” which also includes televisions, major home appliances, and audio or video recording equipment.
While the Minnesota law covers only products sold at retail, the California law also includes products sold directly to schools, businesses, and local governments. This can help, say, school districts get faster and cheaper repairs on student laptops.
But both laws do carve out certain exemptions. Neither law applies to video game consoles, medical and farm equipment, or cars. The California law also exempts alarm systems, while the Minnesota law exempts construction equipment and home energy storage systems, like backup batteries.
“Those are all areas where we think there should be right-to-repair, but we haven’t won the lobbying efforts,” Chamberlain says.
The laws are also limited by when a product was purchased and manufactured. In both states, only products sold on or after July 1, 2021, are covered.
In California, manufacturers are also required to provide repair documentation for only three years after a product was manufactured if the product cost between $50 and $99.99, or for seven years if the product costs $100 or more. Minnesota doesn’t require manufacturers to provide manuals and documentation for products that are no longer made, which means a consumer might be out of luck if they’re trying to repair older electronics or appliances.
Keep in mind that the Minnesota law also includes a provision that gives manufacturers 60 days to provide repair resources once requested, which isn’t ideal, Higginbotham says. This may require repair shops to keep more inventory on hand in order to preempt those delays.
What’s Next for Right-to-Repair?
Of course, right-to-repair laws don’t solve all the issues that make electronics repairs difficult or expensive for consumers.
The manufacturer practice of “parts pairing” remains an issue. This is when manufacturers intentionally limit a device’s functionality or require authorization when a part, like a screen or battery, is replaced—even if the replacement part is identical to the original and from the manufacturer. This practice is intended to prevent someone from, say, salvaging still-working parts from not-in-use devices and using them to replace broken parts on other devices. A ban on parts pairing was passed in Oregon and Colorado but was not included in the newest California or Minnesota legislation.
Manufacturers are also still allowed to sell certain spare parts together as a bundle—such as the frame for a phone screen, along with the battery—which ups the cost of replacing just one part.
But now that laws are on the books in California and Minnesota, right-to-repair advocates are turning their eyes toward manufacturer compliance and consumer education.
Since the implementation of New York’s law last year, not all manufacturers are complying at the same speed, according to initial watchdogging efforts by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Among camera manufacturers, for instance, “there is basically no compliance happening at all yet,” Chamberlain says.
The laws also work better when consumers know their rights. According to a Consumer Reports nationally representative American Experiences Survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults, only 1 in 4 people who are living in a state with right-to-repair laws are aware of those protections.
In California or Minnesota, anyone who suspects that a company isn’t abiding by the new right-to-repair law can file a complaint with their state attorney general’s office. (California residents can file a complaint online here. Minnesota residents can head here.)
“We definitely will need consumers to help us keep manufacturers accountable,” Chamberlain says.
But, for now, repair shop owners like Heupel remain cautiously optimistic about the change the new laws will bring. “I pray that it’s going to make my job a lot better,” he says, “and that people are going to have more confidence in us.”
