Society A
The right to repair – fixing the future
Repair shops versus big industry
In 2017, three events in America generated shock waves around the world – and none of them involved an election. US farmers started buying illicit Eastern European software from secretive online forums and using it to hack into their own brand-new tractors. iphone users on the Reddit chat forum reported that Apple’s 2016 software updates deliberately slowed down the processing unit on older iphones – the 6, 6s and iphone SE. Also that year, Clifford Eric Lundgren, CEO of the Los Angelesheadquartered company IT Asset Partners, was jailed for importing unofficial Windows Operating System restore discs, which help users to rescue data and extend the lives of their computers.
Suddenly, the skirmishes between the right-to-repair movement – a loose collective of environmentalists, consumer activists, repair shops, scientists and farmers – and big business had broken into open warfare. Apple, Toyota, Verizon, Medtronic, Caterpillar, Facebook, AT&T and Johnson & Johnson spent more than $100,000 lobbying to kill a bill in New York State that would have forced manufacturers of digital electronic equipment to offer diagnostic and repair information to anyone who wanted it. They then set about tackling similar bills across the US.
“We were supposed to quiver and run away,” says Gay Gordon-byrne, executive director of the US Repair Association over Zoom from her New Jersey home. “But we’ve been fighting this for years. This is a battle we need to win, or we’ll never own anything again. We’ll just be paying companies an enormous amount of money to borrow things until they decide we don’t own them any more,” she explains.
The right to repair in the US
The right-to-repair movement means different things in different countries. In the US, Gordon-byrne is tackling the trend among companies such as Apple and John Deere to use software licence agreements to keep ownership of any software-controlled parts of items they sell. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a controversial law, makes it illegal for customers to circumvent copy protection on software. It treats this as copyrighted intellectual property.
US farmers once fixed tractors on the job. Now, John Deere and other manufacturers’ contracts make it impossible to do “unauthorized” repair work on farm equipment. Gordon-byrne says that farmers see this as an attack on their sovereignty – and quite possibly an existential threat if, they say, their tractors break down at harvest time.
In 2017, farmers in Nebraska campaigned for right-to-repair legislation. “When crunch time comes and we break down, chances are we don’t have time to wait for a dealership employee to show up and fix it,” Danny Kluthe, a hog farmer in Nebraska, told the state legislature. “Most all the new equipment requires a download to fix.”
That attempt failed – but GordonByrne’s group has filed the same bill in 27 US states this year. Spotlight approached John Deere for comment. “Owners of John Deere machines can choose to repair their products,” the company said in a statement. “However, ownership of equipment does not include the right to modify computer code. Manufacturers have invested in developing and testing embedded software code to ensure equipment can be operated safely and accurately and meets all applicable emissions standards. Allowing untrained individuals to modify equipment software can endanger customers and may result in equipment that no longer complies with safety standards or environmental regulations. It can also cause customers to lose insurance cover.”
“It’s ridiculous that Congress won’t say copyright law should have nothing to do with repair,” Gordon-byrne argues. “You as owner of your cell phone should be able to buy the parts and tools to repair it when the screen cracks or the camera breaks. It’s easier to get bills passed in states than Congress. We have 50 opportunities to get legislation passed. If we get enough, then perhaps Congress will step in and set a uniform approach.”
The right to repair in Europe and the UK
In Europe, the right-to-repair movement is fighting on a different front. In Germany, for instance, the share of new appliances sold to replace defective ones (as opposed to first-time purchases) increased from 3.5 per cent in 2004 to 8.3 per cent in 2012, according to the Öko-institut think tank.
“Many appliances have much too short a lifespan,” says Maria Krautzberger, president of Germany’s Umweltbundesamt – the Federal Environment Agency. “This is ecologically unacceptable. The manufacture of products consumes precious resources, and pollutants and greenhouse gases are a strain on the environment and climate.”
The German right-to-repair movement is deeply rooted in the DIY ethos of German culture, explains Katrin Meyer, coordinator at Runder Tisch Reparatur. This association brings together businesses, NGOS, scientists and local initiatives to support access to the repair of consumer products. “Tinkering, doing stuff with your hands and repairing are very much part of the German economy and society, and we still have a very strong tradition of craftsmanship and local repair,” she adds.
In the UK, Ugo Vallauri is the cofounder of the Restart Project, a social enterprise that teaches people how to repair broken electronics. He points out that certain household appliances, such as washing machines, are hard to repair. Often, the bearings fail in washing machines; when these are sealed away in the drum, repairers cannot access them. “People have to replace the entire drum because the ball bearings have gone,” says Vallauri. “That’s three times as expensive and most people just replace the machine.”
“The German right-to-repair movement is deeply rooted in the DIY ethos of German culture”
The future of the movement
Meyer and Vallauri are hopeful that legislation passing in the EU and the UK will help to change this. From 2021, appliances sold in Europe must be designed so that key components can be fixed with commonly available tools. Spare parts will also have to be made available to professional repairers for at least seven years after the last unit is sold. This is only the beginning, says Vallauri.
“We are pushing for the French model to be expanded. As of January 2021, the French government requires manufacturers to record the repairability score index for laptops, TVS, lawn mowers, washing machines and mobile phones,” he explains. “What’s important about that score is that the price of spare parts is being taken into consideration for the first time.”
In the meantime, consumers who want to fix their gadgets can turn to repair cafes, as pioneered by journalist Martine Postma in Amsterdam in 2009. Hundreds of similar cafes now exist across the globe, where experts teach people how to mend their electronics.
“The EU has acknowledged this problem and, in Germany, politicians are starting to grasp this as something that needs to be done at a political level,” says Meyer. “We have momentum with the green deal and the EU’S desire to deal with climate change. But when the right-to-repair movement takes part in all these consultation processes, we are outnumbered by the representatives of manufacturers. It will be hard to get everything we want – which is crazy, because all we want is the right for everyone to repair all products. It always used to be possible. How come they have taken it away?” Spotlight: What repairs do your cafes do? Phoebe Brown: At our cafes, volunteers fix household items for free. This includes household electricals, such as toasters, hoovers and TVS; clothing; bikes; toys; antiques; and tech. We can’t repair microwaves and safety equipment, and we avoid fixing items if that would take business away from local repair businesses. Otherwise, as long as you can carry it to a repair cafe event, we’ll do our best to fix it! Spotlight: What does Repair Cafe Wales hope to achieve? Brown: Repairing items stops them ending up in landfill and prevents the need to manufacture a new item. This reduces CO2 emissions. Our cafes also bring people together in a really friendly, supportive environment to help build community resilience. We love having a cup of tea and a chat with members of our communities while we do the repairs. Spotlight: What’s the strangest thing your volunteers have repaired? Brown: Lots of weird and wonderful items have come through our doors, including a bouncy castle, an antique gramophone and a robot dog. Find out more about the work Phoebe Brown and her colleagues do at: www.repaircafewales.org