Right to repair laws require manufacturers to sell replacement parts, diagnostic tools, and repair manuals to consumers and independent repair shops, not just their own authorized service centers. As of 2026, more than half of U.S. states have passed some version of the law, covering everything from smartphones to farm equipment, though the specifics of what's covered vary significantly by state.
In this article
What right to repair actually requires
At its core, a right to repair law does one specific thing: it forces manufacturers to sell the same parts, tools, and documentation to consumers and independent repair shops that they already give their own authorized technicians. Before these laws, a cracked phone screen or a broken washing machine motor often meant going through the manufacturer's own repair network, sometimes at a price several times higher than an independent shop would charge, if an independent shop could even get the part.
The laws don't force a company to design easier-to-repair products, and they don't cap what anyone can charge for a repair. They remove exclusivity. A local shop that used to have to source parts from gray-market importers or salvage them from broken devices can now, in states with strong right to repair laws, order the exact same part the manufacturer's own technicians use.
Why the movement started with farmers, not phones
Most people associate right to repair with electronics, but the fight that built the modern movement started in agriculture. Modern tractors run on software as much as hydraulics, and manufacturers like John Deere locked repair and diagnostic software behind proprietary tools that only authorized dealers had access to. A farmer with a broken tractor during harvest season, when every day of downtime costs real money, sometimes had to wait days for an authorized technician to drive out and plug in a laptop to clear an error code that a farmer could have fixed by hand in twenty minutes if the software would let them.
That frustration turned into organized lobbying starting around 2015, with Nebraska and Minnesota among the first states to introduce agricultural right to repair bills. Electronics manufacturers were watching closely, and as smartphone and laptop repairability became a consumer complaint of its own, largely fueled by right to repair advocacy groups like iFixit publishing repairability teardowns, the movement expanded well beyond farm equipment.
Where the laws stand today
New York passed the first broad electronics right to repair law in 2022, though the version that got signed was narrowed significantly from what advocates originally pushed for, exempting some product categories after manufacturer lobbying. Colorado, Minnesota, California, Oregon, and several other states followed with their own versions between 2022 and 2025, each with different coverage. Minnesota's law is generally considered one of the stronger versions, extending to a wider range of consumer electronics and appliances with fewer carve-outs.
There's no single federal right to repair law as of 2026, which means coverage genuinely depends on which state you live in. A repair shop operating near a state line sometimes has to explain to customers why a part is easy to source for a device bought in one state and nearly impossible for the same device bought just across the border.
A farmer with a broken tractor during harvest sometimes had to wait days for an authorized technician to clear an error code by hand in twenty minutes.
The case manufacturers made against it
Manufacturers didn't oppose these laws quietly. The most common arguments centered on safety, counterfeit parts, and data security. A lithium-ion battery installed incorrectly by an untrained repair technician genuinely can catch fire, and companies argued that opening up parts access would put unqualified repairs into circulation with the manufacturer's name still on the device when something went wrong.
Critics of that argument point out that authorized repair networks aren't perfectly safe either, and that the same safety logic could be used to justify almost any restriction on consumer choice. Internal documents that surfaced during Massachusetts and New York legislative hearings, including some from Apple's own repair division, showed internal projections about repair revenue and device replacement rates that added weight to the argument that profit, not just safety, was part of the resistance. Apple has since publicly reversed course on parts of its position, launching its own self-service repair program in 2022, a shift most observers connect directly to the regulatory pressure building at the state level.
What actually changes for you
In a state with a right to repair law in effect, the most direct change is price and availability. Independent repair shops can now order genuine parts instead of relying on salvage or third-party clones, which tends to bring repair prices down through competition. A cracked screen repair that used to be a manufacturer-only $329 fix can, in a market with real independent competition, drop closer to $150 to $200 depending on the device and shop.
The second change is speed. Authorized repair centers, especially for less common devices, sometimes require shipping the device away for a week or more. A local independent shop with parts on hand can often turn the same repair around same-day. For readers following how this plays out in the broader electronics market, our Culture & Trends coverage and our Artificial Intelligence section both cover how device makers are adjusting product design and repair strategy in response to this pressure.
Where the law still falls short
Right to repair laws generally don't require manufacturers to sell parts below a certain price, and several state laws include exemptions for products sold in small volumes or products the manufacturer stopped supporting after a certain number of years. Game consoles, for instance, are excluded from most current state laws, and medical devices remain almost entirely outside right to repair coverage due to separate FDA regulatory concerns that haven't been fully resolved.
Software is the newest front in this fight. Even with hardware parts available, some devices lock certain repairs behind a software pairing process, sometimes called parts pairing, where a replacement part won't function correctly unless it's authenticated through the manufacturer's own software. Oregon's 2024 right to repair law was the first in the country to specifically ban this practice, and other states are watching how that plays out before deciding whether to follow.
How other countries are handling it
The United States isn't the only place fighting this battle, and it isn't the furthest along either. The European Union passed a broad right to repair directive in 2024 that goes further than most U.S. state laws, requiring manufacturers of products like smartphones, tablets, and household appliances to make repairs available for up to ten years after a product's release, and requiring spare parts to be deliverable within a set number of days. The EU rule also pushes manufacturers toward standardized, easily replaceable batteries, a design requirement no U.S. state law currently mandates.
The United Kingdom introduced its own right to repair regulations in 2021, focused initially on a narrower set of appliances like washing machines, refrigerators, and televisions, with electronics like smartphones added to later discussions. Because these rules vary so much by country, a global electronics manufacturer increasingly has to design repairability into a product from the start, rather than treating it as a regional compliance patch, simply because building three different versions of the same phone for three different regulatory regions is far more expensive than building one repairable version for everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does right to repair mean manufacturers have to fix my device for free?
No. Right to repair laws require manufacturers to make parts, tools, and repair documentation available to owners and independent shops. They don't require free repairs or set price limits on repair services; they just remove the manufacturer's ability to be the only option.
Which devices are actually covered by right to repair laws today?
Coverage varies by state and country. Most current U.S. state laws focus on electronics and appliances, with several explicitly covering smartphones, laptops, and home appliances. Automobiles have separate, older right to repair rules in most states. Coverage for medical and agricultural equipment is narrower and still being fought over industry by industry.
Will repairing my own device void the warranty?
In the U.S., the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act has made blanket warranty-voiding language illegal since 1975, though manufacturers rarely enforced that rule until regulators started actively pursuing complaints. A manufacturer can still deny a warranty claim if it can show your repair actually caused the specific problem, but simply opening the device isn't grounds for denial.
Why were manufacturers against these laws for so long?
Companies raised concerns about safety, counterfeit parts, and data security, and independent repair does carry some of that risk if done poorly. Critics counter that repair revenue and the push to sell new devices sooner were bigger factors, pointing to internal company documents that surfaced during state legislative hearings.
The Takeaway
Right to repair laws don't force free fixes or cap prices, but they do end a manufacturer's exclusive control over the parts and tools needed to repair a device. That's already made independent repair cheaper and faster in states with strong versions of the law, from Minnesota to Oregon. Coverage is still uneven, software-locked parts are the newest battleground, and there's no federal standard yet, so the practical effect for you still depends heavily on your zip code. If your next device breaks, check what your state's right to repair law actually covers before assuming your only option is the manufacturer.