Used to be, a cracked phone screen or a dead laptop battery put you entirely at the mercy of Apple or Samsung. Proprietary parts. Locked-down diagnostic software. Take it to us, or don’t get it fixed. That grip is loosening, state by state, and it’s not just phones anymore.
Why it matters: Right-to-repair has become one of the rare issues that unites Republicans and Democrats. Since New York passed the first electronics repair law in 2022, the movement has spread to phones, laptops, wheelchairs, dishwashers, and now, increasingly, farm equipment. Roughly one-third of Americans already live in a state with some version of this law on the books.
What’s changing this year
Colorado’s HB24-1121 took effect January 1, covering everything from IT devices and appliances to e-bikes and HVAC systems. Connecticut is enacting its own repair provisions this month as part of a broader consumer protection bill. Texas’s consumer electronics repair law kicks in this September.
More than 33 right-to-repair bills landed across 13 states in just the first few weeks of this year alone, according to The Repair Association, the advocacy group tracking the movement nationally.
Farmers are the newest front line
The most closely watched fight this year isn’t about phones at all. It’s about tractors.
The Iowa House passed a right-to-repair bill for farm equipment in April, 70 to 18, a genuinely bipartisan vote. The bill would force manufacturers to give independent repair shops and farmers themselves the same documentation, parts, and diagnostic software that authorized dealers already get. Its path forward is still uncertain since the Iowa Senate hasn’t taken up a matching bill.
The frustration behind it is simple and expensive: modern tractors and combines are stuffed with proprietary software, and a broken one can sit idle for days waiting on an authorized technician, exactly when a farmer can least afford to wait, during planting or harvest. Colorado became the first state to pass a dedicated agricultural right-to-repair law, one that now touches an estimated 46,000 farms across a $4.2 billion sector.
Why manufacturers are pushing back
Electronics and equipment makers argue that opening up proprietary systems creates safety risks and exposes intellectual property to misuse. Some trade groups warn of unauthorized modifications causing real harm.
Advocates aren’t buying it. Independent shops already repair complicated machinery safely across dozens of other industries, they argue, and the real-world effect of locked-down repair policies has simply been higher costs and longer waits, for consumers and farmers alike, with manufacturers capturing repair revenue that used to go to local shops.
Where this goes next
Federal momentum remains far behind the states. The proposed REPAIR Act, focused on car diagnostic data, has support from independent auto shop associations who testified before a U.S. House subcommittee this year. A companion bill covering farm equipment, sometimes called the Farm Act, is also stalled. Neither has reached a floor vote in either chamber.
PIRG, the advocacy group, is currently tracking more than 50 active right-to-repair bills across 22 states. A few of these will likely become law before the year is out, adding to a list that’s grown from a handful of pioneering states just a few years ago into something close to a national standard.
The bottom line: You’re not imagining that repairs have gotten harder and pricier over the last decade. Lawmakers noticed too, and for once, both parties agree on the fix.
The wheelchair fight nobody talks about
The most urgent version of this fight rarely makes headlines: powered wheelchairs. A broken wheelchair can leave someone without basic mobility for weeks while they wait on an authorized repair technician, which is why Colorado passed dedicated wheelchair right-to-repair legislation even before its broader electronics law. For that population, repair delays aren’t an inconvenience. They’re a direct hit to daily independence.
The scrap and recycling industry, meanwhile, is genuinely split on the broader movement. Some recyclers have historically viewed expanded repair access as competition, since a part that gets repaired is a part that never enters the recycling stream. Others have come around to seeing it as an opportunity instead, since easier repair access also feeds a growing refurbishment market that keeps devices in use longer before they eventually need recycling anyway.
