Following the momentum of President Biden’s sweeping competition executive order, the FTC now wants in on the action. In a unanimous vote, the Commission approved to adopt a policy statement calling for more aggressive enforcement against manufacturer restrictions that prevent consumers and businesses from repairing their own products. The policy statement also pushes for more enforcement of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which restricts a company from tying a warranty to the use of a specific service provider.
This policy statement flows from a two year process. As we have previously reported, in 2019, the FTC called for public comment and empirical research on repair restrictions, and in May 2021, the FTC released its “Nixing the Fix” report to Congress. Based on those results, the FTC issued this statement that it will now “prioritize investigations into unlawful repair restrictions under relevant statutes such as the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and Section 5 of the FTC Act.”
In her prepared remarks before the vote, Chair Lina Khan stated that repair restrictions “can significantly raise costs for consumers, stifle innovation, close off business opportunity for independent repair shops, create unnecessary electronic waste, delay timely repairs, and undermine resiliency.” She expressed that the FTC “has a range of tools it can use to root out unlawful repair restrictions” and called on the public to submit complaints about potential violations.
Commissioner Chopra echoed Khan’s sentiment and recommended that the Commission take steps in addition to reinvigorating enforcement: (1) engage the independent repair community, and conduct a close review on the user experience on reportfraud.ftc.gov; (2) work with other agencies to reform existing procurement policies that allow contractors to block government buyers from self-repair or seeking third-party repair services; and, (3) assist policymakers, including at the state level, to draft Right-to-Repair laws.
All companies offering a product warranty should review its terms, particularly any terms limiting repairs under the warranty. As we are bound to see more activity on the state and federal levels with right to repair legislation and enforcement, we will continue to monitor these developments.