Viewpoint: Why manufacturers do not want Oklahomans to fix their own stuff
When things break, you fix them. If it seems like common sense, that’s because it is.
Not long ago, most products came with a full-service manual and were easily repaired with widely available parts. But, increasingly, makers of everything from toasters to tractors — and even medical equipment — use a variety of legal, digital and physical barriers to prevent people from fixing their things, and force product owners to use the manufacturer or their “authorized” repairer instead.
When only the manufacturer or its brand-authorized service provider can access the parts or service materials necessary to fix something, they can charge whatever they want, take as long as they want or push you to “upgrade” and buy a new device.
That’s bad for consumers. It’s bad for local repair businesses that can’t help their customers. It’s bad for farmers who can’t fix their tractors. And it’s bad for the environment because it increases electronic waste. The Right to Repair movement wants to fix all those problems by ending manufacturers’ monopolies on the repair.
A nationwide call for Right to Repair reforms has pushed 27 states, including Oklahoma, to consider new laws requiring that manufacturers provide fair and reasonable access to parts, service manuals and diagnostic software. My organization, Public Interest Research Group, or PIRG, has been advocating for common-sense consumer rights for nearly 50 years, and so, naturally, we strongly support the Right to Repair.
As one of the more visible leaders of our pro-repair group of tinkerers, repair professionals, consumers, environmental advocates, STEM educators and free-market proponents, PIRG has taken our fair share of criticism from manufacturers and their representatives. Recently, The Oklahoman published a column by former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts, who currently works as an industry lobbyist. In the piece, Watts claims that the Right to Repair would lead to safety issues across many devices, especially in medical equipment. That’s not true.
Everyone wants hospitals to be safe, and the repair of equipment used in hospitals and care facilities is highly regulated. In 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigated whether independent repair needed additional regulation. Instead, the FDA found that “the continued availability of third party entities to service and repair medical devices is critical to the functioning of the U.S. healthcare system.” Instead of finding safety issues, such as has been suggested by manufacturer lobbyists, the FDA’s report found that third-party repair carries no additional risk and that both independent repair technicians and manufacturers “provide high quality, safe, and effective servicing of medical devices.”
While the FDA decided there was no problem with independent device servicing, manufacturers make it difficult for third parties to fix things — and that can lead to safety problems. For example, if a medical device manufacturer refuses to allow a hospital’s on-site technicians to fix problems, that can mean critical equipment is out of service when patients need it. According to a survey of hundreds of hospital repair technicians, these problems are widespread.
While it’s no surprise that manufacturers think they alone should be allowed to fix equipment they sold, plenty of smart and resourceful Americans disagree. We don’t need big companies to tell us what we can and can’t fix.
Right to Repair is about choice for repairs. I’m sure manufacturers will continue to be successful repair providers, but when the only choice is the manufacturer, things go sideways — costs go up, service goes down.
It’s time we gave Oklahomans their choices back.
Nathan Proctor is the senior director of Right to Repair campaigns with U.S. PIRG, a nonprofit advocacy group.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Why manufacturers do not want Oklahomans to fix their own stuff
