Voters in WA agree: Manufacturer-imposed barriers to device repair are a problem

Vot­ers in Wash­ing­ton State are in over­whelm­ing agree­ment that the prac­tice of many large elec­tron­ics man­u­fac­tur­ers to restrict access to the nec­es­sary parts and infor­ma­tion to make repairs on phones and lap­top com­put­ers is a prob­lem, the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute’s most recent statewide sur­vey has found.

69% of 874 like­ly 2024 Wash­ing­ton State vot­ers inter­viewed by Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Polling ear­li­er this month said that they agreed that the planned obso­les­cence busi­ness prac­tices of firms like Apple and Sam­sung were a prob­lem, with only 15% dis­agree­ing and 16% not sure. The per­cent­age of those in agree­ment per­fect­ly match­es the per­cent­age we’ve pre­vi­ous­ly found in sup­port of right to repair leg­is­la­tion in Wash­ing­ton State, demon­strat­ing strong and sus­tained sup­port.

This morn­ing, the Sen­ate Envi­ron­ment, Ener­gy & Tech­nol­o­gy Com­mit­tee heard House Bill 1392, prime spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mia Gregerson (D‑33rd Dis­trict: South King Coun­ty). As sum­ma­rized by non­par­ti­san staff in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, HB 1392 “requires man­u­fac­tur­ers of dig­i­tal elec­tron­ic equip­ment [but not cars and med­ical devices] to make avail­able to inde­pen­dent repair providers (IRPs) cer­tain parts, tools, and doc­u­men­ta­tion on fair and rea­son­able terms for the diag­no­sis, main­te­nance, and repair of dig­i­tal elec­tron­ic equipment.”

HB 1392 — dubbed the Fair Repair Act for short — passed the House on a vote of 58–38 on March 4th. It must receive a “do pass” rec­om­men­da­tion from the Sen­ate Envi­ron­ment Com­mit­tee by March 29th to remain active this session.

Pri­or to HB 1392’s con­sid­er­a­tion in the Sen­ate, we want­ed to find out if vot­ers in Wash­ing­ton agree or dis­agree with right to repair pro­po­nents that this leg­is­la­tion address­es a real prob­lem that peo­ple are hav­ing with their electronics.

So we asked this ques­tion and got these responses:

QUESTION: Elec­tron­ics man­u­fac­tur­ers like Apple and Sam­sung have a his­to­ry of restrict­ing access to the nec­es­sary parts and infor­ma­tion to make repairs on phones and lap­top com­put­ers. Do you strong­ly agree, some­what agree, some­what dis­agree, or strong­ly dis­agree that this is a problem?

ANSWERS:

• Agree: 69%
  • Strong­ly agree: 45%
  • Some­what agree: 24%
• Dis­agree: 15% 
  • Some­what dis­agree: 9%
  • Strong­ly dis­agree: 6%
• Not sure: 16%

Our sur­vey of 874 like­ly 2024 Wash­ing­ton State vot­ers was in the field from Tues­day, March 7th through Wednes­day, March 8th, 2023.

The poll uti­lizes a blend­ed method­ol­o­gy, with auto­mat­ed phone calls to land­lines (50%) and online answers from cell phone only respon­dents (50%).

It was con­duct­ed by Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Polling for the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute, and has a mar­gin of error of +/- 3.3% at the 95% con­fi­dence interval.

NPI Leg­isla­tive Direc­tor Kathy Saka­hara tes­ti­fied in sup­port of HB 1392 this morn­ing, pre­sent­ing this research and not­ing that vot­ers have been con­sis­tent. What’s also remark­able, in addi­tion to the con­sis­ten­cy of sup­port, is that right to repair is a bipar­ti­san cause — not a dynam­ic we see for every issue. Majori­ties of Repub­li­cans, inde­pen­dents, and Democ­rats all agree that man­u­fac­tur­ers restrict­ing access to parts and infor­ma­tion need­ed to make repairs is a problem.

Breakdown by party and region 

By par­ty affil­i­a­tion: 53% of Repub­li­can vot­ers agree that elec­tron­ics man­u­fac­tur­ers’ his­to­ry of restrict­ing access to parts and infor­ma­tion is a prob­lem, joined by 68% of inde­pen­dents and 78% of Demo­c­ra­t­ic voters.

By region: 63% of vot­ers sur­veyed in East­ern and Cen­tral Wash­ing­ton also agree, joined by 73% of vot­ers sur­veyed in the Olympic Penin­su­la and South­west Wash­ing­ton. These are the rur­al areas of our state, and folks there under­stand­ably want to keep their gear in good work­ing order, whether that’s an Apple iPhone or a trac­tor from John Deere. Urban and sub­ur­ban vot­ers agree too: 71% in King Coun­ty, 71% in North Puget Sound, and 70% in the South Sound.

People should be able to get their broken devices fixed

Dur­ing today’s hear­ing, a num­ber of indus­try spokes­peo­ple argued that right to repair leg­is­la­tion would be prob­lem­at­ic from a cyber­se­cu­ri­ty and pri­va­cy per­spec­tive. For the record, they’re wrong. Mak­ing it eas­i­er for peo­ple to get their devices repaired does not increase any cyber­se­cu­ri­ty or pri­va­cy risks to users.

Most com­put­ers and mobile devices, includ­ing those sold by Apple and Sam­sung, offer built-in strong encryp­tion. Users should have that encryp­tion turned on to pro­tect their data in case of device loss or theft at all times. No encryp­tion means your data is at risk, includ­ing from tech­ni­cians who work for the very same com­pa­nies employ­ing lob­by­ists to oppose this right to repair legislation.

It’s under­stand­able that peo­ple want to be able to fix their devices when they break, and they should be able to. The indus­try rep­re­sen­ta­tives who spoke today  neglect­ed to men­tion that com­pa­nies like Apple have poli­cies in place that pre­vent their employ­ees from help­ing some­one who comes into a retail store with a bro­ken prod­uct that is past its “life­cy­cle” but could still work if it was repaired.

Cuper­ti­no even man­dates that Apple Stores get rid of the tools required to open up and work on old­er prod­ucts (iMac, iPhone, iPad, etc.) and Apple employ­ees are not autho­rized to do any repair work on old­er prod­ucts for “lia­bil­i­ty reasons.”

Accord­ing­ly, if an Apple prod­uct is too old to be eli­gi­ble for ser­vice at an Apple Store, Apple employ­ees will tell a cus­tomer that their only recourse is to go to an inde­pen­dent repair shop and get help there. Yet, those same inde­pen­dent repair shops strug­gle to get the parts and infor­ma­tion nec­es­sary to help peo­ple who want their devices, old or new, restored to good work­ing order.

We can improve this sor­ry state of affairs and reduce elec­tron­ic waste by adopt­ing HB 1392. Wash­ing­to­ni­ans want the Fair Repair Act. They want to be able to fix their things, and our laws should empow­er them to be able to do so.