Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Ben Ray Luján reintroduce Fair Repair Act in both chambers of Congress

Right to repair leg­is­la­tion made it back onto the table this week in the oth­er Wash­ing­ton with the intro­duc­tion of the Fair Repair Act, a bill which intends to give Amer­i­cans greater abil­i­ty to replace faulty or worn parts in their devices and appliances. 

Demo­c­ra­t­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Marie Glue­senkamp Perez (WA-03) and Joe Morelle (NY-25) intro­duced the leg­is­la­tion in the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, while Sen­a­tor Ben Ray Luján of New Mex­i­co did so in the U.S. Senate.

The leg­is­la­tion would give the Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion author­i­ty to reg­u­late the busi­ness prac­tices of orig­i­nal equip­ment man­u­fac­tur­ers (OEMs). Many OEMs active­ly pre­vent their cus­tomers from inde­pen­dent­ly obtain­ing and installing func­tion­al replace­ment parts, pur­pose­ful­ly reduce parts’ func­tion­al­i­ty, exag­ger­ate the risk of mal­func­tion­ing parts, charge high repair costs, and lim­it who can pur­chase parts.

Pro­po­nents of the bill argue that repairs take up a high per­cent­age of Amer­i­cans’ spend­ing on elec­tron­ics, as many rely on expen­sive repairs from man­u­fac­tur­ers, who don’t want com­pe­ti­tion. The U.S. Pub­lic Inter­est Research Group, which has advo­cat­ed for the leg­is­la­tion, esti­mates that the leg­is­la­tion could reduce spend­ing on elec­tron­ics by 22%. Advo­cates also con­tend that the high repair prices incen­tivize peo­ple to buy new prod­ucts instead of repair­ing them, result­ing in waste.

“In rur­al com­mu­ni­ties like mine, it can take hours to dri­ve to an autho­rized retail­er or Apple Store for a repair,” Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Glue­senkamp Perez said in a press release. “The Fair Repair Act would empow­er folks with the right to fix their own stuff or take it to the shop they want – which will make repairs quick­er, eas­i­er, and less expensive.”

Perez also intro­duced the Agri­cul­tur­al Right to Repair Act in 2023, which specif­i­cal­ly intends to help farm­ers repair equip­ment that they would oth­er­wise need assis­tance or pro­fes­sion­al help with. The bill is still stuck in committee.

Sev­er­al states have already passed right to repair leg­is­la­tion, includ­ing Col­orado, which recent­ly extend­ed cov­er­age to make repair eas­i­er on elec­tron­ics and cars. In Europe, man­u­fac­tur­ers must sup­ply spare parts for up to a decade.

Right to repair laws are not with­out their critics. 

Some researchers have cau­tioned that one-size-fits-all leg­is­la­tion can have unin­tend­ed con­se­quences, with pro­duc­ers of cheap goods choos­ing to flood the mar­ket (there­by reduc­ing the incen­tive to repair and increas­ing envi­ron­men­tal waste) while pro­duc­ers of expen­sive goods raise prices to make up for weak­er profits.

Nathan Proc­tor, the senior direc­tor of the U.S. PIRG’s cam­paign in favor of right to repair, reject­ed the notion that right to repair will have neg­a­tive repercussions. 

“Man­u­fac­tur­ers have long argued that they should be allowed to con­trol repairs, that when they lim­it who can fix our prop­er­ty, they do it to pro­tect us. That’s absurd. Every­one knows that choice in the mar­ket­place is essen­tial to keep costs down and qual­i­ty high. Right to Repair is about mak­ing sure that Amer­i­cans have options for where they fix their phones or appli­ances, and farm­ers have a choice of where to fix their tractors.” 

The leg­is­la­tion faces obsta­cles in the divid­ed 118th Congress. 

Lead­er­ship plans to recess for the entire month of August, and Democ­rats need Repub­li­can votes to get the leg­is­la­tion through both cham­bers. Repub­li­cans do not want to hand Democ­rats more pol­i­cy wins that could help them on the cam­paign trail.

Still, the intro­duc­tion of the Fair Repair Act adds to the nation­wide atten­tion toward mar­ket­place fair­ness. The Biden admin­is­tra­tion has already pri­or­i­tized fight­ing “junk fees” — sur­prise costs that are not includ­ed in stick­er prices.

While advo­cates of this leg­is­la­tion might not see a vic­to­ry in this Con­gress, the rein­tro­duc­tion of the Fair Repair Act is help­ful for build­ing momen­tum towards an even­tu­al leg­isla­tive vic­to­ry. It keeps the fire burn­ing, so to speak. 

In the Pacif­ic North­west, Ore­gon has suc­ceed­ed in pass­ing a right to repair law, while Wash­ing­ton is get­ting clos­er to hav­ing one, thanks to the efforts of State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mia Gregerson (D‑33rd Dis­trict: South King Coun­ty). NPI’s Ever­green State research has found robust sup­port for right to repair for two con­sec­u­tive bienniums:

• In Novem­ber of 2021, 69% of like­ly 2022 vot­ers said they were sup­port­ive of a bill that aims to pro­mote “the fair ser­vic­ing and repair of dig­i­tal elec­tron­ic prod­ucts in a safe, secure, reli­able, and sus­tain­able manner.”
• In March 2023, 69% of like­ly 2024 Wash­ing­ton State vot­ers said that they agreed that the planned obso­les­cence busi­ness prac­tices of firms like Apple and Sam­sung were a prob­lem, with only 15% dis­agree­ing and 16% not sure.

NPI strong­ly sup­ports the Fair Repair Act at the fed­er­al lev­el and will con­tin­ue work­ing to secure pas­sage of a right to repair law in Wash­ing­ton State in 2025.