MASSPIRG launches 2023 digital ‘Right to Repair’ campaign

At a State House event  of legislators on Thursday, advocates, small business owners and others called for swift passage of the Digital Right to Repair bill (HD 3826/SD 793). If passed into law, the bill would give consumers and independent repair businesses access to the parts, manuals and tools needed to keep portable electronics working. At the event, MASSPIRG advocates also released their new “Failing the Fix” scorecard, which calculates how easy or difficult it is to fix most popular cell phone and laptop brands, such as Apple, Google and Dell.

The bill’s chief sponsors, Rep. Adrian Madaro (East Boston) and Sen. Michael Brady (Brockton), have said they would work together to make this bill a priority for the 2023-2024 session.

Massachusetts led the nation in creating auto Right to Repair rules in 2012, which PIRG, Repair.org, iFixit and others are now pressing to expand to include other kinds of electronics. The bill this year narrows the approach to portable consumer electronics, such as tablets and smartphones.