Apple’s About-Face on Right to Repair

Apple is opposing a landmark right-to-repair bill in Oregon that the FTC — and Google — have thrown their support behind.

By Paul Blest, More Perfect Union

After years of opposing right-to-repair bills on IP and consumer protection grounds, the second-most valuable company in the world by market cap made national news last year for endorsing a right-to-repair bill in California.

But Apple’s support for legislation that ends its monopoly on iPhone device repairs has run into a major test in Oregon, where lawmakers are attempting to pass what could be the strongest repair law protecting consumers in the U.S, SB 1596. The bill passed the Senate in February. 

Apple’s senior manager for “secure design,” John Perry, has testified against the legislation at multiple public hearings this year. He told Oregon House lawmakers in a hearing this week that the legislation will prevent the company from protecting its customers from the possibility that its phones may explode. 

“The risk to consumers is not theoretical,” he told lawmakers, saying 90 percent of third-party smartphone batteries don't meet the standards required of Apple. According to Perry, Apple needs to be able to tell their consumers that if they use a third-party battery, it may result in a “thermal event.” 

"A runaway thermal event for a lithium-ion battery is a sudden and catastrophic experience that can result in bodily harm and property damage,” Perry said.

Pressed on this later by Rep. Nathan Sosa, the committee’s vice chair, Perry admitted that an exploding phone as a result of a non-Apple battery is “a rare event.” 

“This isn’t something that’s happening to dozens of people every few hours,” he said. “We display the warning message because, while the risk may be small…it is catastrophic.”

Apple’s opposition to the Oregon bill, Perry said, has to do with new requirements on parts pairing; currently, Apple requires the use of first-party components in the repairs process. This drives up the cost for consumers; replacing a cracked screen through Apple costs about $200 more than getting it repaired by an independent repair shop using a third-party screen, according to the New York Times. (That’s not even counting AppleCare, the company’s two-year, $200 device insurance that replaces batteries and screens for “free,” and brought in nearly $9 billion in revenue per year in 2020.)

iFixit, a website that sells parts components and puts together repair guides for consumers, found that seven different iPhone parts can cause issues during the repair process, according to the New York Times. This means that some major parts including the battery, display, and both the front and back-facing camera can trigger issues, even when swapped between identical iPhones of the same generation. 

On the other hand, Steven Nickel, the director of devices and services operations at Google, testified in support of the Oregon bill. “[The bill] provides a victory for consumers who want affordable repair options, for the environment in its emphasis on sustainability, and for companies that believe that repairability truly matters to us all,” Nickel said. 

The legislation was approved by the House panel despite Apple’s opposition and could soon receive a floor vote. It was also endorsed by the Federal Trade Commission this week, in a letter that explicitly called out Apple for using “parts pairing requirements that undermine the right to repair.”

“Manufacturers that engage in parts pairing hinder the ability of independent repair shops to stock and use both after-market parts and parts supplied by the manufacture,” the FTC said. “Parts pairing also inhibits competition that would reduce the cost of repairing products, introduces artificial delays into the repair process, and may be a powerful motivation for consumers to replace rather than repair their products.” 

“We strongly support expanding consumers’ options when they must repair their devices,” the letter said. 

What else is happening in the states

• Kentucky has advanced legislation that would eliminate workers’ right to a lunch break and slash overtime requirements. The lead sponsor, Rep. Phillip Pratt, owns a landscaping business that could benefit from the bill’s passage, according to Louisville Public Media. 

• A Michigan Senate committee heard two bills this week that would put more restrictions on payday loans, which have been shown to exacerbate rather than solve financial problems for vulnerable people. One of the bills would cap payday loan rates at 36 percent, as opposed to rates that can currently reach as high as 370 percent. 

• In conservative Oklahoma, a House committee unanimously approved a bill requiring medical debt collectors to make a patient aware of the costs before a debt collection lawsuit proceeds. The bill will now go to the House floor, per KOSU.

• Minnesota Democrats are preparing to advance a series of bills targeting corporate consolidation and monopolies, with the backing of Attorney General Keith Ellison. The legislation will include an agricultural right-to-repair bill, according to the Minnesota Reformer.

• The Virginia House advanced a junk fee ban after the bill passed the Senate earlier this month. 

• Republicans in the Arizona House voted unanimously to ban local universal basic income programs, which have repeatedly been shown to alleviate poverty. Arizona, by the way, has one of the country’s highest rates of homelessness. 

• Just two months after New Jersey let the highest corporate income tax rate in the country expire — 11.5 percent for income over $1 million a year — Gov. Phil Murphy wants to restore that tax for companies making over $10 million per year to pay for public transit. 

• A Mississippi House committee passed Medicaid expansion for the first time ever, as the state endures a crisis of failing rural hospitals. Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican in a state dominated by Republicans, opposes it. 

• A bill to use taxpayer dollars to build a Major League Baseball stadium in Salt Lake City passed the legislature and will now head to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. No, Salt Lake City does not have an MLB team. 

What we’re reading

• Less than 2 percent of state legislators are from the working class | Eric Hansen and Nicholas Carnes, Duke/Loyola Chicago 

• Nuisance, danger or something more? How a far-right GOP faction is dividing SC’s State House | Anna Wilder, The State

• The good, the bad, and the ugly of the state legislative season | Jonathan Thompson, High Country News 

• ​​Louisiana's New Governor Gutted Critical Corporate Subsidy Reforms | Pat Garofalo, Boondoggle