Minnesota's new right-to-repair law requires electronics manufacturers to provide consumers and independent repair shops with the tools and parts needed to fix broken devices.
Signed into law as part of an omnibus appropriations bill by Governor Tim Walz on Wednesday, the Digital Right to Repair Bill covers products sold on or after July 1, 2021, and requires companies that sell in Minnesota to provide customers or independent repair shops with the tools and parts to fix their devices on “fair and reasonable” terms within 60 days.
Its requirements take effect on July 1, 2024. If companies fail to meet the conditions set out by the law, they can expect to be hit with penalties from the state’s attorney general.
The Digital Right to Repair Bill does not cover video game consoles, medical gear, farm or construction equipment, digital security tools, or cars. But it goes further than a similar right-to-repair legislation signed into law by New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul last year. That bill was considerably watered down before it was signed, with companies not being obliged to sell individual parts, and business-to-business and business-to-government electronics sales not being included. The New York bill also doesn't affect products sold before the law was passed.
In a blog post, Kyle Wiens, CEO of repair site iFixit, said: “The repair revolution arrived in Minnesota today! Now independent repair shops can compete, and everyone who wants can fix things themselves… Manufacturers, get ready. Everyone else, get fixing.”
According to Repair.org, a right-to-repair campaigning group, 25 other states have active repair bills going through their legislature at the moment. Last month, Colorado passed a repair bill aimed at tractors and other agricultural machinery, which is due to take effect next year.
Gay Gordon-Byrne, the Executive Director of Repair, told PCMag that "everyone in the US will benefit" from the Minnesota bill.
"The New York law was tightly limited to products sold at retail to consumers—leaving big gaps in scope. For example, it wasn't clear about how schools could buy common IT equipment and remain covered by the statute," he adds. "Minnesota fixed that problem. Owners of IT equipment purchased for professional, business, education, industry or government use will have the same rights to repair as individual consumers."
