User:Thunder75564/Right to repair
 | This is the sandbox page where you will draft your initial Wikipedia contribution.
If you're starting a new article, you can develop it here until it's ready to go live. If you're working on improvements to an existing article, copy only one section at a time of the article to this sandbox to work on, and be sure to use an edit summary linking to the article you copied from. Do not copy over the entire article. You can find additional instructions here. Remember to save your work regularly using the "Publish page" button. (It just means 'save'; it will still be in the sandbox.) You can add bold formatting to your additions to differentiate them from existing content. |
Article Draft
[edit]Lead
[edit]Right to repair is a legal right for owners of devices and equipment to freely modify and repair products such as automobiles, electronics, and farm equipment. Right to repair may also refer to the social movement of citizens putting pressure on their governments to enact laws protecting a right to repair.
Common obstacles companies use to prevent repair include: requirements to use only the manufacturer's maintenance services, restrictions on access to tools and components, and software barriers.
Proponents for this right point to the benefits in affordability, sustainability, and availability of critical supplies in times of crisis.
Article body
[edit]History
[edit]The strategy to continuously change products to create continuous demand for the latest generation was pursued at a large scale by General Motors executive Alfred P. Sloan. GM overtook Ford as the biggest American automaker and planned obsolescence with annual variants of a product became widely adopted across industries in the American economy, eventually becoming adopted by Ford by 1933.
The car industry was at the forefront of establishing the concept of certified repair: starting from the 1910s, Ford established certified dealerships and service networks to promote parts made by Ford instead of independent repair shops and often after-sales parts. Ford also pushed for standardized pricing among certified repair shops, making flat fees mandatory even for different repairs. The combination of annual updates to cars and components made it more difficult for independent repair shops to maintain a stock of parts.
In 1947, a business owner was refurbishing old spark plugs and reselling them. However, he was reselling them under a trademarked name. This led to a lawsuit that provided the framework for legislation that would provide a right to resell repaired or refurbished items, as long as they were labelled correctly.
Champion Spark Plug Co. v. Sanders provided the basis of FTC guidelines which provides an uninfringeable right to resell repaired or refurbished items as long as they were labeled as such. The decision also provided the framework for trademark guidelines regarding the resale of used goods under a trademarked namesake.[1]
FTC guidelines Title 16, Chapter I, Subchapter B, Part 20 provides guidance and regulations on the labeling of items that have been “rebuilt”, “refurbished”, or “re-manufactured” in order to prevent unfair competitive advantage in selling components in the automobile industry. This guideline hence allowed businesses the ability to repair items, for resale later.
In the consumer electronics industry, some manufacturers shifted towards more repairable designs. Apple, which rose quickly to become one of the largest computer manufacturers, sold the first computers with circuit board descriptions, easy-to-swap components, and clear repair instructions.
Copyright with regard to computer software source code also became a front on the limitation of repairability. In the U.S., the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 prohibits repairs unless granted an exception, and has been used to block repairs as software became more common in a range of devices and appliances.
To prevent refilling of empty ink cartridges, manufacturers had started placing microchips counting fill levels and usage, rendering refills difficult or impossible. Reselling and refurbishing products was confirmed to be legal by the Supreme Court in 2017 in Impression Prods., Inc. v. Lexmark Int'l, Inc.. As of 2022, complaints about the longevity and repairability of printers remains.
Enacted legislation
[edit]United States
[edit]| State | Law | Bill | Effective date |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | PRC § 42488–42488.3 | 2023–24 SB 244 | July 1, 2024 |
| Colorado | C.R.S. § 6-1-1501 – 6-1-1505 | HB23-1011 | January 1, 2024 |
| HB24-1121 | January 1, 2026 | ||
| Massachusetts | Automotive Right to Repair | ||
| 2020 Massachusetts Question 1 | TBD | ||
| Minnesota | MN Stat. § 325E.72 | 2023 SF 2744 | July 1, 2024 |
| New York | Digital Fair Repair Act | July 1, 2023 | |
| Oregon | TBD | 2024 SB 1596 | July 1, 2027 |
European Union
[edit]Adopted on May 30, 2024 the European Union's Right to Repair Directive (R2RD) requires manufacturers to offer repair services that are both efficient and affordable, while also making sure consumers are aware of their repair rights.[2] Previously, the right to repair in the EU was regulated by the Sale of Goods Directive and the different product-specific Commission Regulations provided under the Ecodesign Directive.
References
[edit]1 Champion Spark Plug Co. v. Sanders, 331 U.S. 125 (1947)
- ^ "Champion Spark Plug Co. v. Sanders, 331 U.S. 125 (1947)". Justia Law. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
- ^ "Right to repair: Making repair easier and more appealing to consumers | News | European Parliament". www.europarl.europa.eu. 2024-04-23. Retrieved 2024-10-07.