The right to repair movement wants owners and independent shops to fix electronics with real parts and manuals. Regulators now agree. The FTC told Congress in May 2021 that repairs often demand specialized tools and hard-to-get parts, while diagnostic software stays proprietary. Oregon answered in 2024 with a law that binds makers to fair terms.
Here is the right to repair explained: what it demands, and what changed for the newest devices. The story moved fast after 2021, from a federal study to a state statute, and the newest rules now reach hardware sold from January 1, 2025. This connects to our earlier piece, The U.S. state privacy law patchwork, mapped for normal people.
Where the movement began
The federal record started the current wave. In May 2021 the Federal Trade Commission sent Congress Nixing the Fix, a report ordered after a public workshop on repair restrictions in July 2019. Its finding was plain. Many consumer products have become harder to fix and maintain. Repairs today often require specialized tools and proprietary diagnostic software, and the needed parts stay hard to obtain. The study put mobile phones and cars at the center. Congress noted that repair limits may increase costs and limit choice.
The stakes reached past gadget buyers. Independent shops could not bid for work that only an authorized channel could touch. Working devices died for want of parts that existed but stayed out of reach.
What the new state laws require
Oregon passed the clearest test case in 2024. Its law, SB 1596, requires an original equipment manufacturer to offer owners and independent repair providers, on fair and reasonable terms, anything it offers its own authorized service providers for diagnosing, maintaining, repairing, or updating consumer electronic equipment sold or used in the state.
The law also takes on parts pairing, the software tie that binds a replacement part to a machine. For equipment manufactured for the first time, and first sold or used in Oregon after January 1, 2025, a manufacturer may not use parts pairing to keep a functional replacement part from installing or working, including a part the manufacturer never approved. It may not use pairing to cut the device's performance, or to post misleading alerts about unidentified parts that the owner cannot dismiss. The statute does not force any manufacturer to hand over trade secrets.
What the manufacturers did
The vendors did not wait for every legislature. On April 27, 2022, Apple opened Self Service Repair in the United States, selling genuine parts and tools to any customer, with more than 200 individual parts and tools for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups, plus the third-generation iPhone SE, at launch. The company stated the parts sell at the same price as those offered to its authorized repair network, and that returning a replaced part for recycling earns a credit on certain repairs.
Apple aimed the program at experienced repairers and said Macs with Apple silicon would join the same year. The direction still matched the laws. Parts that sat behind an authorized network now sit in a public catalog.
Can a broken device be fixed outside the network now?
The practical answer depends on a few quick checks:
- Where the device was first sold or used: Oregon's duties attach there, and its pairing ban reaches hardware made and first sold in the state after January 1, 2025.
- What the device is: Apple's public store covers its own products, and the company said Macs with Apple silicon would join the same year.
- When it was bought: the newest covered hardware is exactly where the pairing ban starts.
- Who does the work: an independent shop can ask for the same terms as an authorized provider where a repair law applies, and Oregon's statute is one of the first on the books.
A dated receipt settles most of these questions, so keep it with the box.
Conclusion: ownership now comes with a parts catalog
The campaign has moved from slogan to statute. The FTC's 2021 report documented a market where repairs demanded specialized tools and locked software. Oregon answered with fair-terms duties and a parts-pairing ban that reached the newest devices in January 2025. Apple, meanwhile, put more than 200 parts on open sale. None of this turns every repair into a weekend job, and the fine print matters, from the January 1, 2025 cutoff to the trade-secret carve-out. But the default has flipped: a manufacturer now has to justify the lock, not the fix. Readers following this should also see What NIS2 actually requires, in plain terms.
