‘Expensive Paperweights’: Consumer Groups Call for Action on Software Tethering

“Letting one company totally control a product’s updates and features…causes huge harm to users, the environment, and the economy.”

Screenshot: A YouTube ad for the Snoo Smart Sleeper.

by Yaseen al-Sheikh, More Perfect Union

This summer, new parents who’d purchased a “smart” bassinet called the Snoo Smart Sleeper got a surprise — Happiest Baby, the manufacturer, would make some of the features part of a $20 monthly subscription service. As a result, anyone who can only afford to buy a used Snoo or receive one as a hand-me-down will also have to pay hundreds of dollars every year to fully use the bassinet.

It’s a particularly stark example of an increasingly common practice called “software tethering,” which renders a product virtually useless when it no longer receives updates or has its support discontinued by the company. Now, a coalition of more than a dozen consumer protection and advocacy groups have submitted a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking it to take action.

Led by Consumer Reports and U.S. Public Interest Research Group and co-signed by 15 additional organizations, the letter describes how businesses make the overall functionality of their products dependent upon a subscription paywall or updates to an external software program.

“Letting one company totally control a product’s updates and features, and whether it works at all, causes huge harm to users, the environment, and the economy,” Denver Gingerich, the director of compliance for the Software Freedom Conservancy, said in a statement. 

The coalition also urges the FTC to require that companies ensure that their products remain functional even if updates are no longer provided or if the internet connection fails. The letter also encourages manufacturers to develop tools for consumers to be able to repurpose and reuse products after support is discontinued.

In the case of the Snoo, the abrupt change in Happiest Baby’s business model also disincentivizes customers from buying a refurbished Snoo, by promising those who purchase a new Snoo the use of paywalled features for nine months. 

In another example, Spotify announced earlier this year that its $90 “Car Thing,” which was released to the public in 2022 and discontinued the same year, would no longer even be functional by December. Spotify is now facing a class-action lawsuit which alleges that the company knew Car Thing could become obsolete. Others are asking why Car Thing can’t be turned into an open-source product.

The struggle for better consumer protections against sudden changes in company practices is hardly new. For years, consumers and tech analysts have noted that Apple did not publish or disclose a minimum period of support for its products, which they typically release on an annual iterative basis. 

Due to a series of regulations in the United Kingdom via the Connected Devices Act that came into effect last April, however, Apple disclosed for the first time that their iPhones receive up to five years of minimum security and software support following their release date. Both Google and Samsung have discreetly extended their support for new flagship phones from three years to seven years, as well.

Consumer backlash has caused other companies to rethink their approach to how their products function, too. In July, Hewlett-Packard discontinued their e-series of LaserJet printers after customers bemoaned the requirement that it be constantly connected to the Internet and that only proprietary HP ink cartridges could be used. Unlike Spotify’s Car Thing, though, the HP e-series LaserJets are expected to continue to function even though they’re no longer being sold. HP will also discontinue the marketing of its Instant Ink toner subscription, but current subscribers to the plan will not be affected.

The letter also asks the FTC to require that manufacturers disclose the minimum support time for a product on its packaging, encourage practices that allow for reuse once support for the product has ended, and push companies to better build longevity into their products. 

Liz Chamberlain, the director of sustainability at the right-to-repair advocacy group iFixit, said in a statement that “nobody wants a drawer full of broken junk.” 

“But too often, gadgets become expensive paperweights not because the hardware breaks but because companies ended software support,” Chamberlain said. “Customers get left with no way to save or repurpose their hardware. It’s time for the FTC to step up and protect consumers from these shady, wasteful business practices.”