Austin, TX — Consumer Reports applauds the Texas Legislature for passing HB 2963, a right to repair bill that would require manufacturers of consumer electronics worth more than $50 to provide replacement parts, tools, and repair documentation available to consumers and independent repair providers.
Texas is now the seventh state to pass a digital right-to-repair law, following Colorado, Oregon, New York, Minnesota, California, and Washington. If the governor signs the bill, more than 30 million Texans would gain the right to repair the digital products they own.
Justin Brookman, director of tech policy at Consumer Reports, said, “We are excited that the right to repair movement has reached the second largest state in the nation. If signed into law, Texans will have more freedom to choose how and where to repair their devices, options that can lead to significant savings for consumers over time.”
CR is encouraging lawmakers in Texas to revisit the bill in the next legislative session to include a revision to prevent parts pairing, which refers to a manufacturer’s practice of using software to identify component parts through a unique identifier. Manufacturers can use parts pairing to prevent access to repair or confuse the consumer about a third-party repair’s efficacy. As consumers increasingly purchase products with a software component and those products are connected to the internet, the lack of clarity around repair rules can mean that these devices exist in a gray area where even after a consumer purchases a product, the manufacturer retains control and ownership of it.
Consumer Reports has also incorporated the right to repair into its Digital Standard, a set of best practices that CR uses to evaluate the privacy and security of software, digital platforms and services, and internet-connected products, as well as to help influence the design of these products.
Contact: cyrus.rassool@consumer.org