The White House and consumer electronics giant Apple (AAPL) have become unlikely allies in pushing for a national “right to repair” law that would require manufacturers to help independent repair shops and consumers fix broken devices.
Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council, joined state officials and a representative from Apple to make the case for a right-to-repair policy in a webinar broadcast on Tuesday.
Apple “supports a uniform federal law that balances repairability with product integrity, data security, usability and physical safety,” Brian Naumann, Apple’s vice president of worldwide services, said at the event. “We believe there is real value in establishing a national standard.”
Apple’s involvement is notable because, until recently, the company has lobbied against right-to-repair laws at the state level. That changed earlier this year when the iPhone maker came out in support of a California law signed this month that requires companies to make repair manuals, tools and parts available to consumers and independent repair shops at reasonable prices.
“It’s huge that they’re getting on board,” said Liz Chamberlain, director of sustainability at iFixit, a website that provides repair manuals and tutorials and helps consumers fix their own devices, which co-sponsored the California law after negotiating with Apple.
Consumer advocates have long argued that consumer electronics companies have made it too difficult for people and independent repair shops to fix their products, forcing people to throw away phones, computers, TVs and other products that could otherwise be repaired.
US households spend an average of $1,767 a year on new electronics, a figure that could be reduced by $382 if people fixed their own stuff, according to a 2021 report by the Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organisation.
Companies have made repairs more difficult in a number of ways, and Apple has been one of the biggest offenders in the eyes of consumer advocates. People trying to make simple repairs, such as changing the batteries on their iPhones, have complained that the process is made unnecessarily difficult by Apple’s decision to use special screws, glues and solder, and its past practice of restricting the sale of spare parts. A 2022 PIRG report gave Apple an “F” grade for the repairability of its phones.
Apple has joined the Right to Repair push as state-level repair efforts have gained momentum. In addition to California, Colorado and Minnesota have recently passed laws requiring manufacturers to help people fix their own devices.
“I think it was really strategic of them to recognise that if they didn’t find a bill that they could live with – something that they could support across the country – then these were going to continue to pass in ways that didn’t work for them,” Chamberlain said.
Apple’s support gave it a seat at the table when California’s law was being drafted, and it won a major concession in that its controversial “parts pairing” technology remains legal. The company embeds microchips in certain parts of its devices that don’t work properly until they’ve been remotely authorised by Apple. This makes it difficult, for example, to replace a broken iPhone screen with one from another phone of the same model.
“It means that Apple continues to have significant control over the repair market,” Chamberlain said. “I think this is a huge step forward. It’s a big deal. It should make repairs cheaper, easier and more available to everyone. But it still allows Apple to operate in some of the ways they have in the past.