Why the Right-to-Repair Movement Is Gaining Ground

When your phone screen cracks or your tractor throws an error code, who gets to fix it? For years, the answer has increasingly been: only the manufacturer, at their price, on their schedule. The right-to-repair movement is pushing back — and after decades of advocacy, it is finally winning laws.

The movement's core demand is simple: owners should have access to the parts, tools, and documentation needed to repair their own products, or to take them to an independent shop. Manufacturers have resisted with arguments about safety, intellectual property, and security. Repair advocates counter that these are often pretexts for protecting lucrative repair monopolies.

Wins in the US and EU

Momentum has shifted decisively. Several US states have passed right-to-repair laws covering electronics and agricultural equipment, and federal agencies have signaled support for repair-friendly rules. In the EU, ecodesign regulations now require manufacturers to make spare parts available for years and to design products for disassembly.

The effects are already visible: longer software support windows, parts sold directly to consumers, and repair manuals published openly. What was once a niche activist cause is becoming standard consumer protection.

What changes for owners

For consumers, the practical wins are lower repair costs and longer device lifespans. Independent repair shops — long squeezed by parts restrictions — get a fairer shot at competing. Environmentally, the stakes are large: extending the life of electronics reduces e-waste and the carbon footprint of manufacturing replacements.

Manufacturers are adapting rather than surrendering. Some now run their own self-service repair programs, selling genuine parts and tools directly. Others redesign products to be more modular — a shift that, whatever the motive, benefits everyone.

• New laws require parts, tools, and manuals to be available to owners and independents.
• Longer software support is becoming a competitive selling point.
• Repairable design cuts e-waste and lifetime ownership costs.

Transparency is becoming a competitive weapon in its own right. France's repairability index — a mandatory score displayed at the point of sale — lets shoppers compare how fixable products are before buying, and manufacturers are starting to compete on the score. Similar labeling ideas are spreading, turning repairability from a compliance burden into a marketing advantage. When buyers can see the difference, the market starts rewarding the companies that design for repair.

The road ahead

Challenges remain: enforcement is uneven, some product categories are still exempt, and manufacturers keep finding creative loopholes. But the direction is unmistakable. The idea that buying something means owning it — fully, including the right to fix it — is becoming law.

For a movement that started in farm workshops and repair cafés, that is a remarkable journey from the margins to the mainstream.