Gotta fight for your right to repair

Fix it yourself

"Move fast and break things" works — unless you're talking about your tech.

Tech breaks all the time, and it's often a headache to fix, particularly when it comes to Apple products. If your iPhone breaks, the best place to take it is the Apple Genius Bar. Historically, Apple has wanted to keep it this way. But yesterday it changed course and announced that it will help customers repair their own iPhones.

Consumers will be able to order the parts, tools and manuals necessary to fix their own devices starting early next year. The program will start with the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 in the U.S., and will later expand to M1 Macs and other countries throughout the year.

• To access parts, users will first have to read Apple's Repair Manual. Then they can place an order for the required tools through Apple's Self Service Repair Online Store.
• Apple said the self-service program is intended for "individual technicians with the knowledge and experience to repair electronic devices," not just casual users. That's something people in the right-to-repair movement will push back on. "If you design a product right, anybody should be able to fix it," said Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, which helps Americans repair devices.

It's a major pivot for Apple, which has actively fought the right-to-repair movement. The manufacturer is notoriously stringent about sharing device information with independent technicians, and it's put quite a bit of effort into squashing right-to-repair legislation.

• Apple is known for quiet defensive plays in Washington and state capitals. It backs trade groups such as TechNet, which has been lobbying against right-to-repair legislation in multiple states.
• The company was hardly eager to let outsiders in on its repair business, or make it easy for customers to hold off on plunking down a couple hundred dollars for new hardware every few years.
• For most of Apple's history, independent technicians had to pay to become "authorized service providers" and receive genuine Apple parts. Apple finally extended device info access with its Independent Repair Provider program in 2019.

But the tides have been changing as the right-to-repair movement gains momentum. Apple and other device manufacturers are facing sustained pressure from the FTC, state lawmakers and several activist groups.

• The FTC voted in July to fight repair restrictions after a report found "scant evidence" justifying them. It was a rare display of bipartisanship inside an agency facing political divisions and gridlock. The FTC's unanimity suggests Apple wouldn't escape the issue at the federal level, even when Republicans eventually retake power at the agency.
• Twenty-seven different states have introduced right-to-repair bills, all based on the Repair Association's legislative template. Massachusetts voters last year adopted a right-to-repair measure, and New York's state Senate this year passed a right-to-repair act.
• "They're staring down a double-barrel," Wiens said. According to him, Apple's reversal was likely inevitable. "If right-to-repair passed, they would have been required to do this anyway. They're not going above and beyond what the proposed laws say."

Will this change how other Big Tech device makers approach repair? Unclear, but it at least puts other companies' policies in the spotlight. And if legislators take action, they may have no choice but to open access. If customers are less reliant on specific device manufacturers to repair their products, maybe their products will live longer.

"If we're going to put these products out in the world and go through the effort of manufacturing them, with global warming and CO2 emissions, we need to have a plan for making these things stand the test of time," Wiens said.

— Lizzy Lawrence (email | twitter) and Ben Brody (email | twitter)

A version of this story first appeared on Protocol.com. Read it here.

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