New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed the “Digital Fair Repair Act” (Digital Fair Repair Act) on December 28, 2022. Comes into force on the 1st. The most noteworthy point of the new regulations is that companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google are required to provide maintenance manuals for digital products.
The bill provides that consumers and independent repair providers have the right to obtain manuals, diagrams, diagnostics and parts from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in order to repair their own equipment. Now signed, though, the bill is somewhat amended, offering OEMs some handy exceptions and loopholes to get rid of the corporate obligations that many right-to-repair advocates have been hoping for.
One of the most controversial tweaks in the signed law is that it allows OEMs to sell assemblies of parts of their choice, rather than individual components. The bill also would not require OEMs to provide “passwords, security codes or materials” to bypass security features, which are sometimes required to preserve locked but functioning devices.
That makes the bill “functionally useless,” said maintenance technician Louis Rossmann. Rothman responded to the revised bill today with a video filled with detailed analysis and criticism.
The Act does use the term “digital electronic device” to broadly define eligibility for protected equipment. However, it fully exempts certain industries, including household appliances, motor vehicles, medical equipment, and off-road equipment. It also exempted enterprise equipment that schools, hospitals and data centers rely on, iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens wrote in a statement on the company blog.
