John Deere Pays $99 Million To Settle ‘Right To Repair’ Class Action

Legal Issues

from the do-not-pass-go,-do-not-collect-$200 dept

A few years ago agricultural equipment giant John Deere found itself on the receiving end of multiple state, federal, and class action lawsuits for its efforts to monopolize tractor repair. The lawsuits noted that the company consistently purchased competing repair centers in order to consolidate the sector and force customers into using the company’s own repair facilities, driving up costs and logistical hurdles dramatically for farmers.

John Deere executives have repeatedly promised to do better, then just ignored those promises. Early last year, the FTC and numerous states filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company for its efforts to monopolize repair. Though, with MAGA corruption purging any remaining antitrust enforcers from its ranks, it’s unclear if the FTC action will ever actually result in anything meaningful.

John Deere did however just have to pay $99 million to settle a different class action lawsuit brought by its customers. Under the settlement John Deere doesn’t admit to any wrongdoing, but will deposit the money into a fund to pay more than 200,000 John Deere owners for expensive dealership repairs since 2018.

In an announcement by the company, John Deere pretends they’re a consumer-focused enterprise:

“As we continue to innovate industry leading equipment and technology solutions supported by our world-class dealer network, we are equally committed to providing customers and other service providers with access to repair resources,” said Denver Caldwell, vice president, Aftermarket & Customer Support. “We’re pleased that this resolution allows us to move forward and remain focused on what matters most – serving our customers.”

Except if John Deere had cared about customer service, they wouldn’t be in this predicament.

In addition to intentionally acquiring repair alternatives to monopolize repair and drive up consumer costs, John Deere also routinely makes repair difficult and costly through the act of software locks, obnoxious DRM restrictions, and “parts pairing” — which involves only allowing the installation of company-certified replacement parts — or mandatory collections of company-blessed components.

More recently, the company had been striking meaningless “memorandums of understanding” with key trade groups, pinky swearing to stop their bad behavior if the groups agree to not support state or federal right to repair legislation. Several such groups backed off their criticism, only to have John Deere continue its monopolistic behavior, the FTC’s complaint notes.

The annoyance at John Deere’s behavior has driven a broad, bipartisan movement that’s in very vocal support for state and federal guidelines enshrining “right to repair” protections into law. Unfortunately, while all fifty states have at least flirted with the idea of a state law, only Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Minnesota, Colorado, California, Oregon, and Washington have actually passed laws.

And among those, not one has taken any substantive action to actually enforce the new law, something that needs to change if the movement is to obtain and retain meaningful policy momentum.

Filed Under: agriculture, class action, dealership, ftc, lawsuits, repairs, right to repair, tractors
Companies: john deere

Tech Lobbyists Are Trying To Kill Colorado’s Popular ‘Right To Repair’ Law

Legal Issues

from the this-is-why-we-can't-have-nice-things dept

There’s a meaningful push afoot to implement statewide “right to repair” laws that try to make it cheaper, easier, and environmentally friendlier for you to repair the technology you own. Unfortunately, while all fifty states have at least flirted with the idea, only Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Minnesota, Colorado, California, Oregon, and Washington have actually passed laws.

Passage can be a challenge due to the relentless lobbying of numerous industries that very much enjoy a monopoly over repair (especially tech and auto). New York State’s law, for example, was watered down by NY Governor Kathy Hochul after passage because tech companies didn’t like it.

The same thing is afoot in Colorado, where tech companies are trying to neuter that state’s right to repair laws. Colorado’s assortment of laws, which first appeared in 2022, have implemented protections covering wheelchairs, agricultural farming equipment, and consumer electronics, making it easier for consumers in all those sectors to afford repairs and gain easier access to parts, manuals, and tools.

But tech companies like Cisco and IBM have pushed Colorado lawmakers to sign off on  SB26-090, the Exempt Critical Infrastructure from Right to Repair law, which would neuter much of the protections under the pretense of making the public safer. As you might imagine, the companies’ are trying to use a definition of “critical infrastructure” that’s so large and vague as to render all the protections meaningless:

“I can point out at least five problems with the bill as drafted,” Gay Gordon-Byrne, the executive director at the Repair Association, said during the hearing. “The definition of critical infrastructure is completely inadequate. The definition that has been proposed in this bill is not even a definition.”

While tech company lobbyists have convinced the Colorado Labor and Technology committee to advance the bill, it still needs approval by the Colorado Senate and House, which may prove more difficult now that outlets like Ars Technica and Wired have shed a little light on the effort.

It’s worth pointing out that while eight states have now passed right to repair laws, none have actually enforced them despite numerous, ongoing infractions across countless industries. That’s something that’s going to need to change if state rhetoric on the subject is to be taken seriously.

Filed Under: colorado, consumers, hardware, lobbying, parts, prices, right to repair, tech, tools

Automaker Lobbyists Keep Undermining Maine’s Effort To Pass Popular ‘Right To Repair’ Reforms

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the lobbyists-run-the-world dept

We’ve covered how there’s a real push afoot to implement statewide “right to repair” laws that try to make it cheaper, easier, and environmentally friendlier for you to repair the technology you own. Unfortunately, while all fifty states have at least flirted with the idea, only Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Minnesota, Colorado, California, Oregon, and Washington have actually passed laws.

And among those states, not one has actually enforced them despite a wide array of ongoing corporate offenses (though to be fair to states there is kind of a lot going on).

Of states that are looking to pass additional laws, Maine appears to be the closest, despite a lot of automaker lobbyist shenanigans. LD 1228, otherwise known as “An Act to Clarify Certain Terms in and to Make Other Changes to the Automotive Right to Repair Laws,” aims to make it easier and more affordable for Maine residents to repair what they own.

The reforms were approved by Maine voters as a ballot initiative in 2023, again displaying how these reforms see broad, bipartisan public support.

But the auto industry hasn’t been happy with language in the bill that would give consumers and independent repair shops access to vehicle data (because, if it’s not clear, they’re keen to monopolize repair). Their lobbying was effective enough that the Maine legislature sneaked in language to LD 1228 making it so the auto industry would determine precisely how to share this data with others.

That gave the auto industry too much power over the reforms, so the bill in its current form was recently vetoed by Maine Governor Janet Mills. From her veto statement:

“This provision — which was notably not included in the Working Group’s unanimous recommendations — was included at the urging of automobile manufacturers. However, without timely access to vehicle data, independent auto shops are left at a significant competitive disadvantage, and consumers would have fewer choices for automotive service and repair. With this provision included, LD 1228 would undermine the existing law overwhelmingly approved by Maine voters and harm independent repair shops across the state.”

The House, being pressured by automaker lobbyists, over-rode Mills’ veto, but the Senate flipped and upheld the veto after automakers went overtime spreading scary (and false) stories about how right to repair reforms pose a dire new security and privacy risks (they don’t). In some states, automakers have even lied and claimed that such reforms are a boon to sexual predators.

It’s another example of how, while we’re supposed to function as a representative democracy, corruption ensures that passing positive and even hugely popular reforms that challenge entrenched corporate power is as difficult as possible. And even if Maine does get a useful bill passed, serious enforcement is still an open question given limited state resources and attention spans in the Trump era.

Filed Under: automakers, Janet Mills, maine, reforms, right to repair

Our Corrupt Congress Just Quietly Killed Military Right To Repair Reforms

Failures

from the this-is-why-we-can't-have-nice-things dept

We’ve covered how there’s a real push afoot to implement statewide “right to repair” laws that try to make it cheaper, easier, and environmentally friendlier for you to repair the technology you own. Unfortunately, while all fifty states have at least flirted with the idea, only Massachusetts, New York, Minnesota, Colorado, California, and Oregon, and Washington have actually passed laws.

And among those states, not one has actually enforced them despite a wide array of ongoing corporate offenses (though to be fair to states there is kind of a lot going on).

This reform movement, which sees broad bipartisan support, had even started to reach toward the military, which is probably the poster child for over-billing, dysfunctional repair monopoly, “parts pairing,” and other predatory efforts to jack up the cost of maintenance and ownership.

Back in June we mentioned how Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll had committed to including right-to-repair requirements in all existing and future Army contracts with manufacturers. Some very light language to this effect was to be included in the latest National Defense Authorization Act by Democrat Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Republican Tim Sheehy of Montana.

Earlier this year, Driscoll offered up a useful example of why reform is important:

“Driscoll recently pointed to a Black Hawk helicopter part to show how contractor restrictions drive up costs. The original equipment manufacturer refuses to repair or replace a small screen-control knob that grounds the aircraft when it breaks — forcing the Army to purchase an entire new screen assembly for $47,000. Driscoll said the Army could make the knob for just $15.”

Picture that problem, at scale, across the entirety of U.S. military hardware, planet wide.

But despite the bipartisan popularity of right to repair reforms, companies weren’t keen on losing money via a government crackdown on their grift. So the various policy and lobbying fronts for America’s defense contractors spent much of this fall trying to frame the modest reforms as an affront on innovation to scuttle the reforms as the House and Senate debate over bill versions.

And guess what, they succeeded:

“The House’s Data-as-a-Service Solutions for Weapon System Contracts provision, which would have required DoD to negotiate access to technical data and necessary software before signing a contract, was removed from the final text of the annual legislation released over the weekend. The Senate’s provision requiring contractors to provide the military with detailed repair and maintenance instructions was dropped from the bill as well.

Instead, the legislation requires the Defense Department to develop a digital system that would track and manage all technical data and verify whether contractors and subcontractors comply with contract requirements related to technical data. The compromise version of the bill also requires DoD to review all existing contracts to determine what contractors were required to deliver and what data DoD can access.”

That’s basically worthless bureaucracy as it applies to any sort of meaningful right to repair reforms.

Again, these reforms were about as basic as they get. Still, they would have likely opened the door to taxpayers saving billions of dollars annually when it comes to paying too much for the repair and maintenance of U.S. military equipment. It was a no brainer reform, but because the United States is genuinely too corrupt to function, even that was ultimately a bridge too far.

To add insult to injury, we’ve got fake Trump populists and Silicon Valley execs like Elon Musk running around pretending they care about efficiency. But in instances like this, where there’s real potential to improve government efficiency, you’ll notice they’re nowhere to be found because the reforms would interfere with their ability to rip off the public.

Filed Under: bipartisan, defense department, dod, efficiency, hardware, military, reform, right to repair, software, taxpayers

Defense Contractor Lobbyists Are Trying To Kill Army ‘Right To Repair’ Reforms With A Bunch Of Lies And Bullshit

Failures

from the this-is-why-we-can't-have-nice-things dept

So we’ve noted repeatedly how there’s a real push afoot to implement statewide “right to repair” laws that try to make it cheaper, easier, and environmentally friendlier for you to repair the technology you own. Unfortunately, while all fifty states have at least flirted with the idea, only Massachusetts, New York, Minnesota, Colorado, California, and Oregon, and Washington have actually passed laws.

And among those states, not one has actually enforced them despite a wide array of ongoing corporate offenses (though to be fair to states there is kind of a lot going on).

Back in June we mentioned how Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll had committed to including right-to-repair requirements in all existing and future Army contracts with manufacturers. Some very light language to this effect was to be included in the latest National Defense Authorization Act by Democrat Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Republican Tim Sheehy of Montana.

But despite the bipartisan popularity of right to repair reforms, companies aren’t keen on losing money via a government crackdown on their grift. The various policy and lobbying fronts for America’s defense contractors have been busy this fall trying to frame the modest reforms as an affront on innovation to scuttle the reforms as the House and Senate debate over bill versions:

“On Friday, Aerospace Industries Association President and CEO Eric Fanning penned an op-ed in the Washington Times arguing that the Senate provision would “cripple innovation” in the defense business.”

Nothing quite says “innovation” like aggressively over-charging taxpayers for the repair and maintenance of a litany of often-dated military hardware. There’s ample evidence that just some very modest reforms could save taxpayers untold billions of dollars. One such example illustrated by Driscoll earlier this year:

“Driscoll recently pointed to a Black Hawk helicopter part to show how contractor restrictions drive up costs. The original equipment manufacturer refuses to repair or replace a small screen-control knob that grounds the aircraft when it breaks — forcing the Army to purchase an entire new screen assembly for $47,000. Driscoll said the Army could make the knob for just $15.”

Pretty typical military industrial complex graft. Which we could easily fix. If the U.S. wasn’t quite so grotesquely corrupt.

Organizations like the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) have been making the rounds insisting that there’s nothing that needs fixing, and if there were, actually fixing them would stifle innovation, harm national security, prevent companies from bidding on military contracts, and potentially risk sending sensitive military secrets to dangerous foreign governments.

Warren hasn’t been impressed, and recently fired off a letter to the NDIA politely stating they’re full of shit:

“Military leaders, service members, the White House, and hundreds of small businesses all agree these bipartisan right to repair reforms are desperately needed,” Warren said via email on Friday. “The giant defense contractors fighting these reforms are more interested in innovating new ways to squeeze our military and taxpayers than strengthening our national security.”

Companies have spent the better part of five years trotting out all kinds of bogus claims about how right to repair causes a vast parade of horrible outcomes, all of which have been debunked by subsequent government reports.

The auto industry, for example, falsely claimed that making it easier and cheaper to access your car’s repair data would be a boon to sexual predators. Apple, for years, tried to argue that making its phones easier and cheaper to repair would turn states into dangerous “meccas for hackers.”

Given the immense, often-corrupt influence that military contractors wield over Congress, and the short attention span of the U.S. media, I suspect this is a battle military contractors could ultimately win. And as we’ve seen with state right to repair laws, even if restrictions are passed, seeing them actually enforced with any competent consistency is another matter entirely.

Still, the fact that a bipartisan coalition of folks are actively trying to improve things is a lone bright spot in the soggy, corrupt mire that is U.S. consumer protection.

Filed Under: affordability, army, consumers, military, prices, repair, right to repair

Train Maker Sues Hackers For Exposing Dodgy Efforts To Make Train Repairs More Difficult

Copyright

from the good-luck-with-that dept

Back in 2023 we wrote about how regional Polish rail company and a train manufacturer NEWAG had taken to using DRM to lock down trains that are repaired by independent technicians, in a bid to both monopolize — and drive up the costs of repair. This kind of effort to monopolize repair is common across numerous industries, driving an organic, grass roots “right to repair” reform movement.

The original story by 404 Media noted that NEWAG put code in their train’s control systems preventing them from running if a GPS tracker detected that it spent any time at an independent repair company, and if certain parts had been replaced without a manufacturer-approved serial number. Some independent companies responded by hiring a white hat hacking group dubbed Dragon Sector to bypass the DRM and get the trains running again.

Two years later and it sounds like NEWAG has taken all the wrong lessons from the experience.

The folks at iFixit note that the company has now sued both the Polish repair service SPS that fixed those original trains, and has also gone after the individual members of ethical hacking group Dragon Sector for helping them. NEWAG is looking for $1.7 million for copyright violations and “unlawful competition” in one court, and $1.36 million for unlawful competition and infringement of personal rights in another.

Like most unethical companies trying to monopolize repair, NEWAG tries to insist that this isn’t about making more money, but about the public’s safety. But iFixit notes that the company’s case has several major inconsistencies, including both claiming that the hacking group did and didn’t modify their software:

“Newag claims that the Dragon Sector team endangered passengers’ safety by modifying the software without proper experience. But Newag then turns right around and claims that Dragon Sector did not modify the software at all. They point out that EU law only allows reverse engineering of software in order to fix bugs. And if Dragon Sector did not actually modify the software, it cannot have fixed any bugs, in which case their reverse-engineering must be illegal.”

The Biden FTC under Lina Khan issued a report stating that such safety claims were almost always bullshit; a useful bogeyman used by companies trying to justify anti-competitive, anti-consumer behaviors.

The problem for companies like NEWAG is the harder they try to monopolize repair and bully independent repair shops, the greater public attention and animosity is. The greater public attention and anger becomes, the more likely companies are to see “right to repair” legislative reform forcing them to do what was the right thing in the first place.

Still, there’s no shortage of companies across a dozen different industries which seem to think it’s a good idea to try and monopolize repair through DRM, making parts and manuals hard to find, or engage in “parts pairing” that makes it impossible to simply replace individual “unsanctioned” parts.

Filed Under: consumers, copyright, dragon sector, drm, lawsuit, locomotives, parts pairing, poland, right to repair, trains
Companies: newag, sps

Despite A Flood Of New State Laws, Most Industries Still Suck On ‘Right To Repair’

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the laws-don't-mean-much-if-they're-not-enforced dept

Washington State recently became the eighth U.S. state to pass new right to repair legislation making it cheaper and easier to repair technology you own. At this point, roughly one-third of Americans now live in a state where some form of right to repair law has been passed, usually with broad, bipartisan, overwhelming public support.

But according to a new report by U.S. PIRG, most industries and companies aren’t really changing their ways. U.S. PIRG graded 25 products, five each in five different categories: dishwashers, phones, tablets, laptops and gaming devices. The manufacturers were graded as to how readily they provided customers with the parts and manuals needed to repair products.

The results were… not good:

“Of those products, 40% received a D or an F, 28% received Bs or Cs, and 32% received As. Of these products, we could not access a repair manual for 48%, and 44% had no spare parts available.“

Laptops generally fared pretty well, but no dishwasher in the study scored above a C. The study also found that Atari and Sony all failed to provide any repair materials for the game consoles reviewed by the organization.

One problem, as noted recently, is that none of the states that have passed such laws have bothered to enforce them. Companies in most states haven’t really been asked to do anything different. In some states, like New York, the bills were watered down after passage to be far less useful. I’ve yet to see a single state take meaningful action against any company for right to repair violations, despite the fact there’s clearly no limit of bad actors to take aim at.

That’s going to need to change for the reform movement to have real-world impact; but with states facing unprecedented legal threats across the board during Trump 2.0, meaningful consumer protection—and picking bold new fights with corporate giants—likely won’t be a top priority for cash-strapped states.

Filed Under: consumers, hardware, manuals, manufacturers, parts, reform, right to repair, state law

The U.S. Army Embraces ‘Right To Repair.’ At Least Superficially.

Surprises

from the fix-your-own-shit dept

U.S. consumer protection (or what’s left of it after several devastating Supreme Court rulings and Trump executive orders) is on life support. But one bright spot continues to be the “right to repair” movement, which is working to fight repair monopolies and make it cheaper and easier to repair the tech you own.

Washington state recently became the eighth state to pass right to repair legislation with additional states (like Ohio) looking promising. And the U.S. Army continues to indicate it’s starting to take right to repair reforms seriously after decades of concerns. At least superficially.

Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll recently committed to including right-to-repair requirements in all existing and future contracts with manufacturers, a change, Sen. Elizabeth Warren tells The Verge, that will “put an end to our dependence on giant defense contractors who charge billions of dollars and take months to repair critical equipment.”

In an April 30 memo, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directed the Army secretary to “identify and propose contract modifications for right to repair provisions where intellectual property constraints limit the Army’s ability to conduct maintenance and access the appropriate maintenance tools, software, and technical data.”

The shift is promising but limited. At the moment, only the Army is interested in embedding such language in their contracts. Assuming they follow through.

There’s also a matter of enforcement: of the eight states that have passed right to repair laws, not a single one has bothered to take any sort of meaningful enforcement action. There’s certainly no limit of bad actors engaging in all sorts of bad behavior (“parts pairing,” obnoxious DRM, making parts and manuals hard to find, actively working to kill or acquire competing repair companies).

But America’s strong suit has never been standing up to consolidated corporate power. That’s going to be increasingly true of states that are facing unprecedented, costly legal challenges during the Trump administration on everything from health care and climate to immigration. Not many are going to be keen to start expensive new battles with corporations with bottomless budgets.

Whether the Trump-managed Army will do any better is an open question. We’ve seen decades of stories where (like the consumer and health care markets) the Army couldn’t repair essential hardware they owned because of weird restrictions imposed by big corporations trying to monopolize repair. Despite this potentially costing lives, it took until 2025 to even consider doing anything about it.

Language in a contract (or a state law) hinting that this sort of thing is bad is one thing. But enforcement and holding companies accountable is something else entirely. And a Trump administration that’s busy utterly destroying the federal government’s ability to hold corporations accountable isn’t going to have the leverage necessary to stop corporate power from being obnoxious on right to repair.

Still, progress is progress, and even having discussions about reforms is progress. But sometime soon activism needs to pivot some of its collective energy on this subject toward complaining about a lack of enforcement, if we’re to take rhetoric and reforms on right to repair seriously.

Filed Under: army, consumer rights, military, military equipment, pete hesgeth, repair, right to repair, state law

Texas Will Soon Be The 9th State To Pass A Popular ‘Right To Repair’ Law

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the fix-your-own-shit dept

While U.S. consumer protection is generally an historic hot mess right now, the “right to repair” movement — making it easier and cheaper to repair the things you own — continues to make steady inroads thanks to widespread, bipartisan annoyance at giant companies trying to monopolize repair in creative and obnoxious ways.

Washington State just became the eighth state to pass a new law theoretically making it easier and cheaper to repair the technology you own. Now, barring a veto from Governor Abbott, Texas is poised to be the ninth state to do so after the State’s new right to repair law (HB2963) passed a vote in a the Texas state Senate last week 31-0. That comes after the House passed the legislation 126-0.

Again, this movement continues to make inroads because anti-consumer repair monopolies annoy everybody. Unlike many consumer reform efforts, companies haven’t had much success (yet) scaring the public away from “right to repair” reforms, despite a lot of scary (and false) claims about how such laws pose a risk to consumer security and privacy or aid sexual predators.

Texas’s new law requires manufacturers to make spare parts, manuals and repair tools available to consumers and independent shops. Consumer groups and “right to repair” advocates are unsurprisingly excited:

“When you can’t fix something, you either have to buy a new one or do without. It drives up waste and costs. People are tired of throwing away things they prefer to fix, and clearly this is a message that has gotten through to lawmakers,” said Nathan Proctor, PIRG’s Senior Right to Repair Campaign Director. “Congratulations to Rep. Capriglione for his excellent work standing up for the rights of product owners, and the small repair shops all across Texas. This is a Texas-sized win.” 

This is definite progress, and I hate to be a buzzkill, but it’s worth reiterating that of the 8 states that have passed right to repair reforms so far, not a single one has actually enforced them in any meaningful way. This despite no shortage of bad corporate actors working overtime to kill independent repair shops, make manuals and parts hard to find, use obnoxious DRM, or claim that repairing your own stuff violates warranty.

Many states are facing unprecedented legal and financial challenges thanks to new Trump-triggered legal fights across everything from environmental law to healthcare. As a result most states aren’t going to be keen to launch costly new legal battles against deep-pocketed corporations.

Republican states like Texas, in particular, aren’t likely to say…start picking meaningful new fights with Apple or Sony. That runs in pretty stark contrast to the central Republican mission to effectively demolish whatever’s left of regulatory independence, consumer protection, and corporate oversight. They like to pick fights with “big tech,” but only in a bid to bully them into doing nothing about racist propaganda.

At some point at least a portion of the activism calories spent passing these right to repair laws needs to be redirected to yelling at states to actually enforce them, if the overall movement itself is to have any actual meaning and the laws are seen as anything more than populist set dressing.

Filed Under: antitrust, consumers, hardware, monopoly, right to repair, software, texas, tinker

Washington The Eighth State To Pass ‘Right To Repair’ Law

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the fix-your-own-shit dept

Washington will soon become the eighth state in the country to pass Right to Repair legislation. While U.S. consumer protection is generally an historic hot mess right now, the “right to repair” movement — making it easier and cheaper to repair the things you own — continues to make steady inroads thanks to widespread, bipartisan annoyance at giant companies trying to monopolize repair.

Technically Washington state is poised to pass two new right to repair bills.

HB 1483, which covers consumer electronics and appliances, was passed by a strong bipartisan vote of 48-1 on April 10, following a similar near-unanimous vote through the House on March 4. HB 1483 helps expand access to manufacturers’ spare parts, physical and software tools, and diagnostic and schematic information needed to make repairs on personal electronics and home appliances. 

The Right to Repair bill for wheelchairs and mobility devices (SB 5680) also passed both chambers with unanimous votes. Getting both bills passed required a lot of hard work from activists across consumer rights, disability, and environmental sectors:

“I spent seven months in a wheelchair that would turn itself off without warning and refuse to start for varying periods of time. I found out after the chair was scrapped that it should have been an easy fix,” said Marsha Cutting, a member of the Governor’s Committee on Disability Issues and Employment. “This bill would have allowed me to fix my wheelchair instead of having to wait for several months. I’m grateful for the years of work on Right to Repair done by Rep. Mia Gregerson, and I hope that our community will continue to work together to make life better for people with disabilities.”

Ohio could potentially be the ninth state to pass such a law, again showcasing how the issue has broad, bipartisan support. Thanks in part due to the monopolistic behavior of agricultural giants like John Deere.

One problem, as noted recently, is that none of the states that have passed such laws have bothered to enforce them. Companies in most states haven’t really been asked to do anything different. In some states, like New York, the bills were watered down after passage to be far less useful.

That’s going to need to change for the reform movement to have real-world impact; but with states facing unprecedented legal threats across the board during Trump 2.0, it’s not hard to think that meaningful consumer protection — and picking bold new fights with corporate giants — will be among the first things on the cutting room floor for cash-strapped states.

Filed Under: consumers, hardware, HB 1483, ohio, reform, right to repair, software, washington