I’m not wishing our time away, but let’s fast forward through time and re-emerge on 1 July 2024. This is the date when California’s Right to Repair (R2R) bill (known as SB244) will become enforceable law, and I’m very keen to see how it will affect my repair business.
I’ll save the finer points of SB244 for another time, but the bits that are important to us all as consumers and/or tinkerers is that the bill mandates that elements that manufacturers use to facilitate their own in-house repairs – such as parts, tools, documentation and software – must be made available. This is broadly what New York’s R2R law promised, but SB244 adds timescales stating that products costing $50 to $99.99 must have repair elements available for three years after the manufacturer stops making the product. This increases to seven years for products costing over $100, which should make it easier to get things fixed.
As with any R2R legislation – and SB244 is arguably the most progressive R2R law around – it’s far from perfect. Not all electronic devices are included, but most of the tech showcased within this wonderful magazine will fall beneath its jurisdiction. A couple of negatives are that it excludes games consoles (because of concerns regarding piracy) and it’s not quite clear yet if all the tools will be available to the, refers to professional repairers, so I’m curious to see what credentials Californian repairers will need to present to get their SB244 seal of approval. In the UK, we don’t have recognised accreditation for professional tech repair except at a manufacturer level, and I’m delighted to say that I’ve recently had a brush with greatness. A repair professional came to work in our shop.
