Oregon residents have gained more control over owned devices after state governor, Tina Kotek, signed a new right-to-repair bill into law yesterday.
The new bill, SB 1596, was passed in the state legislature earlier this month. Much like the one passed in California last year, this bill also requires manufacturers to make any documentation, tools, parts, and software required to fix devices made to both consumers and repair shops without overcharging them.
Oregon joins other states, including California, Colorado, Minnesota, and New York. But what makes this state bill more significant (and arguably stronger) than previous legislations in those aforementioned states is that this is the first right-to-repair bill in the United States that bans device manufacturers from using parts pairing.
Parts pairing is a tactic device manufacturers use to dictate what parts must be used when replacing components in a broken device. Last year, when iFixit lowered its repairability score for the iPhone 14, its reason was that Apple was using parts pairing to dictate how to repair the phone. iFixit discovered that the gadget would display a notification that the phone detected whether or not it was using a genuine part, like a battery or a camera.
Unfortunately, SB 1596 only pertains to devices that are manufactured after January 1st, 2025, leaving out any electronic product made before that date, nor does the bill specify how many years minimum a manufacturer should be required to offer repair support for a device. Additionally, this new law does not cover video game consoles. "The exemption list is a map of the strongest anti-repair lobbies, and also of the next frontier of the movement," iFixit wrote in a post after the bill became law.
Why Not Video Game Consoles?
Video game consoles are often left out of these laws despite being arguably some of the most popular devices owned by U.S. consumers. Among the most common issues that require console repairs are hard drive and optical drive issues.
In an article published late last year by iFixit, the company wrote that of the repair shops it surveyed, 93% said they had issues fixing consoles that had broken optical drives. iFixit mentions in a graphic, seen below, that the Xbox and PlayStation partake in parts pairing as both the optical devices and motherboard are paired in a process known only to those that manufacture the devices, making repairing the devices grossly limited.
iFixit also writes that "[a]lmost all of the electronics repair bills we've supported in statehouses around the U.S. have included game consoles at the start," but noted that the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is "the big lobbying group [that] keeps pushing back" on the inclusion of game consoles in right-to-repair legislation.
The ESA has been very vocal about not supporting right-to-repair laws. The ESA argues that these laws could require manufacturers to "turn over sensitive tools, parts, and know-how to unauthorized repair facilities," citing piracy concerns. The ESA claims these laws would allow "unauthorized parties to bypass the console's technical protections and "allow any number of illegally-copied games to be played."
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
