The right to repair movement that seeks to enable consumers to mend broken technologies is gathering pace.

Apple recently became the latest technology business to say it will allow consumers to repair their own devices. That could reduce the life-time cost of pricey kit including iPhones and Macs.

While it held back revealing the cost of spare parts, the company said the initiative would start in the US next year for its most recent phones and Macs. Spare parts for more products will follow.

But the move is not motivated by altruism, according to the Financial Times. It follows a decision in July 2021 by the US Federal Trade Commission to address “unfair anti-competitive restrictions on third-party repair or self-repair of items.” In fact, the Biden administration ordered the initiative.

Movement

Legislation proposing a right to repair in the European Union (EU), the US and UK is underway. For example, the European Parliament voted to give people the power to fix their own devices. It said there was too much “premature product obsolescence” and “e-waste.” 70 per cent of Europeans prefer to mend their products.

In the UK, the government is introducing similar measures, which require manufacturers to sell spare parts for their products. The parts must be on sale within two years of a device coming on to the market. They must stay on sale for between seven to ten years after it stops selling the product.

Legal risk

While consumer groups are happy, lawyers say the new rules create new risks. For instance, the London firm Pinsent Masons said manufacturers could face additional claims alleging product defects due to the longer period of wear and tear on parts.

“A manufacturer might once have argued that the product is not defective, because it has been used beyond its originally intended lifespan and it was only this which caused the defect,” Katie Hancock, a senior associate at the firm, said. “However, against a legal backdrop which envisages the replacement of parts, and the consequent extension of product lifespans, the courts might not be willing to accept such an argument.”

Security risk

It is likely that most parts will only be initially available from the manufacturers. Some have claimed allowing third-party vendors into the equation could erode quality and infringe intellectual property rights.

But, cyber-security experts, such as Andy Barratt at Coalfire, doubts those risks will materialise. “Ultimately, as we have seen in the past, there is nothing to stop any vendor releasing updates that make legacy hardware incompatible with new software,” he told Engineering and Technology magazine.