NY Governor Bows To Big Tech, Signs Slimmed Down Right To Repair Act

The Digital Fair Repair Act that passed the legislature in June had already been trimmed by lobbyists. They weren’t done. Chastened supporters cheered the first electronics right to repair law.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the most comprehensive digital right to repair act in the U.S. into law on Wednesday, more than six months after it passed through New York’s legislature. Advocates celebrated the victory, but lamented last minute changes to the law, made at the bequest of the Governor, that limited its scope to devices sold on the retail market and exempted electronics sold before July 1 of next year from coverage.

The Governor’s signature, obtained after months of delay and intense lobbying by both right to repair advocates and industries opposed to the bill, happened just shy of a midnight deadline to either sign or veto the law. It capped a year that saw an impressive string of victories for advocates of the right to repair. 

Hochul’s signature making New York’s Digital Fair Repair Act law is the first ever state right to repair bill that covers a wide range of common personal electronics including cell phones, laptop and tablet computers, wearable electronics and more. Previously, only Massachusetts residents enjoyed a right to repair automobiles as a result of a 2012 ballot measure. More recently, Colorado law makers passed a wheelchair right to repair law that will take effect on January 1. 

Years of work to pass a state repair law pays off

The law’s proponents expressed satisfaction following the Governor signing the modified bill into law.

“This is the culmination of 8 years of work by advocates, legislators, and over 30,000 New Yorkers engaged in the fight to be allowed to repair their purchases,” said Gay Gordon Byrne, Executive Director of The Repair Coalition.”Despite having a smaller scope than that originally approved by the legislature – this stands as a landmark victory and a pivot point for further expansion.”

Nathan Proctor, Senior Right to Repair Campaign Director at US PIRG said the law, even in its diminished state, was “a critical milestone” for repair advocates and the Right to Repair campaign. “I’ve pushed for repair reforms in dozens of states, and been told by industry lobbyists that we’d never see a floor vote, that we’d never pass a bill, that a governor would never sign it. And while it’s not everything we wanted, it’s the first of its kind in the nation, and just the start.”

The celebration -albeit muted - almost didn’t happen. After the bill passed New York’s Democratic-controlled legislature with overwhelming and bipartisan majorities in June, passage seemed inevitable. Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, assumed office after Governor Andrew Cuomo stepped down in August, 2021.**

Lobbyists had already taken a considerable bite out of the bill. As the Times Union reported, legislators under intense pressure from industry lobbyists had already narrowed the scope of the Digital Fair Repair Act, winning exceptions for cars, medical devices, and industrial machinery like agricultural equipment before it passed.

But a quick passage didn’t happen. Instead, the Digital Fair Repair Act joined a roster of hundreds of bills, passed by the legislature, that sat waiting for a review and signature by Governor Hochul, who was seeking re-election.

The delay gave opponents of the bill a window of opportunity to try to accomplish what they could not with New York’s legislature. As Ars Technica reported, lobbying continued even after the Digital Fair Repair Act passed the legislature, with industry groups focusing on Governor Hochul and her staff and pushing for late amendments to the bill, including exemptions for technology used in “business” settings.

As reported by the Times Union, technology companies including Apple and Microsoft continued to push against adoption of the Digital Fair Repair Act, meeting with the staff from Governor Hochul’s office and that of the New York Attorney General. Even companies whose products had been exempted from the bill, including Medtronic and John Deere, continued to lobby against it, in an apparent effort to stymie any progress on the right to repair legislation. 

Silicon Valley wins major concessions

The effort and money spent lobbying against the passed legislation apparently worked, with sources saying that Governor Hochul, who narrowly won re-election in November, was persuaded by industry groups including TechNet to embrace measures that severely restricted the scope of the Digital Fair Repair Act and, therefore, its benefit to New York consumers and businesses, in favor of large manufacturers and technology firms.

The final version of the Digital Fair Repair Act, signed into law on Wednesday, adds to the broad exemptions granted by the legislature: exempting any covered electronics sold before July 1, 2023 and carving out a broad exemption for products sold outside of a retail context under business-to-government or business-to-business contracts.

Other language in the bill also change the terms under which tools are provided to independent repair providers and device owners, possibly allowing manufacturers to impose higher costs for providing such tools. And a last minute change exempts “printed board assemblies that may allow device cloning” from parts that must be made available by manufacturers under the law.

(Fight to Repair will publish a more detailed analysis of the changes to the law in the days ahead. Stay tuned.)

Supporters promised to push to close those loopholes in a subsequent legislative session, even as other states take up proposed right to repair laws after the New Year. 

“Our coalition includes businesses that repair things for OEMs as sub-contractors and for businesses including data centers of all shapes and sizes,” said Gordon Byrne of the Repair Coalition. “We need to push for the same options for repair for business as for consumers.”

“The revised language excludes enterprise electronics relied on by schools, hospitals, universities, and data centers,” said the repair provider iFixit in a statement. “It also excludes products that consumers already own and applies only to newly manufactured devices. We expect other states to rapidly adopt legislation that closes these loopholes.”

A tortured path to a signature

Proponents say the tortured process and the slimmed down law underscore the enduring power of manufacturers, Silicon Valley tech firms and business interests to stifle progressive laws designed to limit corporate power, promote competition and fight market concentration.

“We know that some of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world have been pushing to scuttle this,” said Proctor of PIRG.  “I'm grateful for the tireless advocacy of our terrific legislative champions, Asm. Pat Fahy and Sen.Neil Breslin.” *

Though chastened by the last minute changes, advocates of the right to repair say that passage of even a slimmed down bill is reason to celebrate. 

"This is a huge victory for consumers and a major step forward for the right to repair movement. New York has set a precedent for other states to follow, and I hope to see more states passing similar legislation in the near future," said Kyle Wiens, co-founder and CEO of the repair website iFixit.com and a major backer of right to repair legislation globally. 

Big Tech flexes its muscle (again)

Prior to the passage of the Digital Fair Repair Act by New York’s legislature in June, anti- right to repair lobbying by TechNet and other businesses and lobbying groups killed 100 separate pieces of legislation filed in 40 states since 2014 - a 99% success rate, according to data from U.S. PIRG. Lobbying against the right to repair has proven to be a worthy investment for manufacturers. 

A 2021 study by U.S. PIRG found that the companies that contribute to lobbying efforts against Right to Repair are cumulatively worth about $10.7 trillion. They include Tesla, Johnson & Johnson, AT&T, Lilly Inc., T-Mobile, Medtronic, Caterpillar, John Deere, General Electric, Philips, eBay, plus the “big five” - Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple and Microsoft. 

Supporters vowed to continue fighting to expand the right to repair to other states and remove carve outs for industries.

“Electronic waste is the fastest growing American waste stream. It takes a massive toll on the environment to mine the materials, and then build and ship all these electronics,” said PIRG in a statement. “We cannot allow manufacturers to block repairs, and force people to constantly replace products or pay through the nose for ‘authorized’ service. Right to Repair is common-sense: if it breaks, fix it. We hope to keep expanding repair access so that people can fix all the products they rely on.”

“This law will benefit consumers all over the world, not just in New York,” said iFixit in a statement. “Manufacturers will not want to ignore the New York market–if New York State were an independent nation, it would rank as the tenth-largest economy in the world.”

Pro repair laws passed elsewhere have already prompted changes by manufacturers, iFixit noted. After the French government introduced a repairability index for products sold at retail, electronics manufacturers made repair manuals freely available online for the first time.

“Similarly, we expect manufacturers to adapt quickly to apply the New York law nationwide by posting service documentation online and selling repair parts. So far this year, Apple, Google, Valve, and Samsung have rolled out parts programs that will help them comply with this new law,” the company said.

(*) an earlier version of this story incorrectly quoted Nathan Proctor of PIRG commenting on passage of the bill. The quote has been corrected. PFR 12/29/2022

(**) an earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the New York Governor who stepped down in 2021 prior to Kathy Hochul becoming New York’s Governor. It was Andrew Cuomo, not former Governor Mario Cuomo, Andrew’s father.