California State Assembly Passes the ‘Right to Repair’ Act

California state legislation passes the Right to Repair Act. With this Act in place, consumers can repair their electronic devices at home or via 3rd party. Senator Susan Eggman passed the SB 244 after a 30-0 vote in the senate and a 65-1 vote in the assembly. After the final decision by California’s governor Gavin Newsom, the act will be enforced from July 2024.

Repairing electronic devices outside of authorized repair centers is notoriously hard. The Right to Repair Act has been an effort since 2018 to make repairs more accessible and cheaper for consumers.

With the Act in effect, manufacturers will need to provide information or manuals for the diagnosis, maintenance, or repair of products they make. Consumers and unauthorized 3rd party repair facilities can use this information to repair the devices.

Apart from the repair manuals, manufacturers also need to disclose information about any parts provided by external suppliers. This will allow users and repair facilities to buy those missing parts without having to go through the manufacturer.

The Right to Repair Act also defines exceptions. One of those is that manufacturers don’t need to disclose trade secrets or license any intellectual property. This includes copyrights or patents. This Act also does not require the distribution of a product’s source code. The manufacturers will also not be allowed to send special documentation, tools, and parts that would disable or override anti-theft security measures set by the owner of the product without the owner’s authorization.

That being said, repairing your device will come with its own set of conditions. The Act does not allow anyone making repairs to hold the manufacturer or authorized repair facility liable for damages or injuries to the property, person, or device.

Despite these exceptions and conditions, it will get much better for California tech consumers to reliably repair their devices. The Right to Repair Act is already having its effect on latest iPhone 15 having a design that is easy to repair.