‘Right To Repair’ Reform Passes CA State Senate, 38-0
from the fix-your-own-stuff dept
Reform efforts aimed at making it easier and more affordable to repair technology you bought and paid for continue to see progress. California’s SB 244 this week passed in the California State Senate with a vote of 38-0, a notable retort to the lobbyists that had been trying to kill the bill:
The bill still needs to pass the State Assembly, but activists tell me they feel good about their chances given this unanimous vote.
SB 244 (Right to Repair Act) requires that every manufacturer of consumer technology products make repair documentation, parts, and tools available to consumer and independent repair shops on “fair and reasonable terms.” The goal: lower consumer costs and annoyance, and reduce environmental waste.
Nathan Proctor, Director of PIRG’s right to repair campaign, says lobbyists had been working hard to kill the bill, to no avail:
“Manufacturers thought they could distract us with half measures, with MOU “pinky swear” agreements … all while their political machine tried to paint us Right to Repair advocates as ne’er do wells, sketchy weirdos. It didn’t work.”
There were some concessions made to get the bill to this point. SB244 doesn’t include technology like game consoles, where repair monopolization by Sony and Microsoft has been common. It also only applies to consumer products, which excludes a whole bunch of sectors (medical, agricultural) where the problem is every bit as bad. And the bill only applies to products sold after July 2021.
Still, progress is progress.
Companies from Apple to John Deere have worked fairly tirelessly to try and find ways to frame right to repair as dangerous to consumer safety and privacy, with the auto industry even going so far as to falsely claim that such reform would aid sexual predators. In some states, like New York and Minnesota, lobbyists had notable luck watering down protections either before or after bill passage.
Still, the progress on right to repair reform is remarkable, and one of the few bright spots in the otherwise grim state of competent U.S. consumer protection reform.
Filed Under: california, consumer protection, freedom to rinker, independent repair shops, repair monopoly, right to repair, SB244
Comments on “‘Right To Repair’ Reform Passes CA State Senate, 38-0”
Jealousy
Now as a New Yorker, I am envious of not only Colorado, but California as well?
If only our state’s legislature wasn’t so corrupt.😢
“You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy” isn’t working out so well.
Even if Newsom vetoes it (and he won’t), it still gets into law with such a gigantic vote.
Yay!
Re:
If it gets a supermajority of votes in the Assembly, Newsom is blocked from vetoing.
On the other hand, if any companies are against Right to Repair, they can gather signatures and force a referendum vote.
The ‘Right To Repair’ movement is crucial as corporations currently hold significant power over the American people.
Re:
Especially when it has huge huge ramifications to how the military-industrial complex operates.
Apparently, they have also captured the DoD as well…
And guess what? UKRAINE.
No! Noooooo!
whoa
I’m pleasantly surprised, and yet concerned that some kinda unexpected swicheroo is eminent. Why would politicians (especially CA politicians) do something beneficial for the people?
‘Can’t truss it’
Re:
What are you talking about?
Sacramento has done quite a bit for the people of California.
We all now how this will go by now
With that kind of impetus, “it” will pass in the State Assembly. “It” meaning the state after someone manages to tack on a last-minute “amendment” that effectively neuters it.
Ev
Evs too?
Re:
Every motorhead has a hundred years of automotive repair success somewhere around him/her/non-binary*.
BUT there’s a reason industrial robots have a “Humans Keep Out” cage around them, by law.
An EV is a 2-4 thousand pound robot with 450vdc/100kWh stored inside… with about 1,500 amps available in real time. All controlled with a CPU smaller than an Eisenhower 50c piece.
Go for it: break a nail
*I taught the x, she was a good enough design machinist that Disney hired her, in the last decade she helps design rocket belts