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The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) recently released a report evaluating products for compliance with New York’s Right to Repair law. Smartphones emerged as the most repairable devices, with most major brands providing detailed repair manuals and a range of spare parts. All surveyed smartphones received high grades, reflecting their manufacturers’ compliance with the Right to Repair law.
While some devices received good scores, several product categories entirely missed the mark. Camera brands Canon, Nikon, and Fujifilm all received Fs for their flagship products.
Although Apple’s iPhone received an A for repair material availability, the company has not been consistent across its product offerings. Apple’s Vision Pro augmented reality headset received an F due to missing repair materials. Meta’s virtual reality headset, the Meta Quest 3, also received a failing grade.
Aside from device design, the ability to access information about repairs was another major highlight of the report. There were companies that provided repair materials and some information but when interacting with their customer service by phone or chat, there were often barriers to accessing these resources. For example, customer service representatives from companies like Meta and Sony were unhelpful or unaware of available repair options, indicating a gap in communication and enforcement of the Right to Repair laws like those in New York that have come into effect.
More News
- EU Right to Repair (R2R) Directive Set to Become Law: On July 10th, the EU’s Right to Repair Directive was published in federation’s Official Journal of the European Union—an act that set the clock ticking. Twenty days later, on July 30th, the R2R Directive will become official EU policy with substantial implications for manufacturers who sell to EU residents, according to an analysis on the site Lexology. Among other things, the R2R Directive will require manufacturers or their authorized representatives in the EU to repair broken or defective goods and provide incentives for consumers to choose repair ahead of the other remedies available for a breach of the legal guarantees offered under the Sale of Goods Directive. As it stands, a subset of products are covered including electronic displays, mobile phones and tablets, as well as home appliances. However, companies should “anticipate the scope of this obligation to broaden significantly as new repair requirements are introduced for a broader range of products (e.g., textiles and footwear),” Jamie Humphries and Jack Eastwood of Cooley LLP write on Lexology.
- HMD Cancels Its Circular Subscription: Nokiamob.net reports that HMD Global (formerly Nokia Mobile) has discontinued its circular subscription service, which aimed to offer Nokia device buyers a sustainable option by taking back used phones for refurbishment or proper disposal. HMD says the service didn’t catch on enough with customers to make the service worthwhile.
- Hack All the Things, Get All the Schematics: Arya Voronova has a great op-ed over at Hackaday that celebrates the joy and power of device schematics and argues that companies that have taken a defensive position on schematics—trying to declare them protected IP—might want to rethink those business decisions. “Whichever way you get them, they [schematics] are a goldmine of information you can use to supercharge your projects, whether you’re hacking on the schematic-ed device itself or not,” Voronova writes. “What’s funny is, not every company wants their schematics to be published, but it’s ultimately helpful for the company in question, anyway.”
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