In 2025 C.E., the right to repair movement hit a milestone that advocates had been working toward for years: five U.S. states passed laws giving consumers and independent repair shops real access to the manuals, diagnostic tools, and parts they need to fix the electronics and equipment they already own. It marks the most successful legislative year in the movement’s history — and a meaningful shift away from an economy built on replacement.
At a glance
- Right to repair laws: Five states passed legislation in 2025 C.E. requiring manufacturers to provide repair documentation, diagnostic tools, and replacement parts to consumers and independent shops.
- Legislative reach: Nearly 30 states introduced right to repair bills in the most recent session, reflecting broad, bipartisan public support for consumer ownership rights.
- E-waste impact: Extending the useful life of smartphones, laptops, and farm equipment reduces discarded electronics and cuts the energy and raw materials needed to manufacture replacements.
What these laws actually require
For years, many manufacturers designed products to be repaired only by their own authorized service networks — locking out independent shops and individual owners through proprietary parts, encrypted diagnostics, and withheld documentation. The new state laws break that model.
Under the legislation, manufacturers must make repair manuals and diagnostic software publicly available, and sell replacement parts at fair prices. That applies to digital electronics in some states and extends to farm equipment and medical devices in others. Colorado’s law is among the most expansive, covering agricultural equipment. New York was an early mover, focused on consumer electronics.
For independent repair shops — many of them small, community-based businesses — this access changes what’s economically possible. They can now compete for work that was previously funneled to manufacturer-controlled service centers. That means more local jobs, lower repair costs for consumers, and longer-lived products.
The environmental case for repair
The World Economic Forum estimates that e-waste is one of the fastest-growing waste streams on the planet. Most discarded electronics are not recycled effectively — they contain valuable metals and hazardous materials that end up in landfills or informal recycling operations in lower-income countries, disproportionately affecting communities that had no role in producing that waste.
Right to repair laws attack the problem at the source. When a cracked screen or a failed battery no longer means buying a new device, the raw materials and manufacturing energy embedded in the original product go further. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has long flagged electronics manufacturing as a significant source of carbon emissions and resource extraction — extending product life is one of the most direct ways to reduce that footprint.
Grassroots advocacy made this happen
The legislative wins didn’t come from top-down policy. They came from years of organizing by repair advocates, independent shop owners, farmers frustrated by locked-down tractor software, and consumer rights groups like U.S. PIRG and Repair.org. The coalition that built this momentum is deliberately broad — rural and urban, left and right — which helps explain why the bills found bipartisan support in multiple state legislatures.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has also played a key role, pushing back against the intellectual property arguments manufacturers use to justify repair restrictions. Their work helped reframe the debate: this isn’t about circumventing copyright, it’s about who owns a product after it’s sold.
That framing matters because it’s the same argument driving progress in other domains. The recognition of Indigenous land rights at COP30 reflects a similar principle — that ownership and stewardship deserve legal backing, not just goodwill.
What comes next — and what’s still unresolved
Five states is a start, but it’s not a finish. Federal right to repair legislation has been introduced and stalled repeatedly. The patchwork of state laws creates real complexity for manufacturers and may produce uneven access depending on where a consumer lives — someone in a state without a law still faces the same locked-out repairs as before.
There’s also an open question about enforcement. Laws requiring parts availability are only as strong as the agencies monitoring compliance. Advocates are already tracking whether manufacturers find ways to technically comply while practically limiting access.
Still, the trajectory is clear. In 2025 C.E., the right to repair became law in more places than ever before. The same patient, evidence-based advocacy driving progress in public health — including falling cancer death rates in the U.K. — shows what consistent pressure on solvable problems can produce. Repair advocates have reason to believe the same logic applies here.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Good News for Humankind — Five U.S. states have passed Right to Repair legislation in 2025
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- U.K. cancer death rates are at their lowest level on record
- Indigenous land rights win at COP30 covers 160 million hectares
- The Good News for Humankind archive on consumer rights
About this article
- 🤖 This article is AI-generated, based on a framework created by Peter Schulte.
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