Oregon’s new right to repair law bans ‘parts pairing’ in defiance of Apple

Yesterday, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed into law the newest and toughest right-to-repair act in the U.S. This is the fourth such state law in the country, and it goes even further than California’s good effort last October, in particular by resisting Apple’s lobbying and banning the use of “parts pairing” to hinder independent repair services.

Parts pairing is when an electronics manufacturer digitally pairs a component’s serial number to that of the machine it goes into. So, in the case of an iPhone, an Apple-made battery taken from a smashed-up handset can’t simply be swapped into another iPhone that needs it, without triggering scary warning messages about potentially unofficial parts. A swapped-in selfie camera won’t work properly, despite being an official Apple part. Same goes for a screen, which may not be able to have its brightness adjusted, for no good reason.

As the New York Times reported last year, this tactic has made Apple billions of dollars, by steering customers towards the pricey AppleCare insurance policy, under which the company will repair screens and replace batteries. So it’s no surprise that Apple tried to convince Oregon lawmakers not to ban the practice, telling them that the move would “undermine the security, safety, and privacy of Oregonians by forcing device manufacturers to allow the use of parts of unknown origin and consumer devices.”

Well, that didn’t work. Oregon’s Right to Repair Act passed each stage of the legislative process comfortably. For any devices sold after the start of next year, manufacturers won’t be allowed to use parts pairing to reduce a device’s functionality or performance, or to “display misleading alerts or warnings…about unidentified parts,” or to stop any device owner or independent repair business from installing a perfectly functioning part. (Other parts of the law, such as those requiring manufacturers to allow people to fix their own devices, apply to stuff that was sold after mid-2015, or mid-2021 in the case of smartphones specifically.)

“By keeping products running and off the scrap heap, repair cuts waste and saves consumers money,” said Nathan Proctor, right-to-repair campaign chief at the Public Interest Research Group, which aided the campaign for the law in Oregon. “People are tired of not being able to fix things. Lawmakers have gotten the message and, in turn, are sending that message to the manufacturers.” 

Incidentally, while Apple opposed the parts-pairing shift, smartphone rival Google did not. Indeed, its devices operations chief Steven Nickel earlier this year wrote an open letter supporting the bill, saying it “requires that as manufacturers we design products in a manner that enables simple, safe, and correct repairs wherever and by whomever they are done,” adding: “This is what we call design for serviceability.”

More news below. And do make sure to read Jessica Mathews and Allie Garfinkle’s great article on Emad Mostaque’s fall from grace at the now very inappropriately named Stability AI.

David Meyer

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BEFORE YOU GO

Chief AI officers everywhere. The Biden Administration has told every federal agency to get a chief AI officer, The Verge reports. VP Kamala Harris: “This is to make sure that AI is used responsibly, understanding that we must have senior leaders across our government, who are specifically tasked with overseeing AI adoption and use.” Some agencies, such as the Justice Department, have already hired CAIOs.