By NOAH PRIDE
Guest Coloumist
Recently, Apple was hit with an antitrust lawsuit.
This has raised questions about whether Apple is running a monopoly as well as questions about ownership over digital goods. A lesser talked about part of this broader conversation is the Right to Repair.
The Right to Repair is an odd thing to talk about. It’s basically what it says on the tin. It’s the customer’s right to repair a product they own. This is obvious for most things. You can put whatever parts you want on your car or in a computer.
But some companies have famously pushed very hard against this. The two most famous are Apple and John Deere.
John Deere was infamous for not allowing farmers to use third party products to repair their tractors and other vehicles. John Deere did this by using software lock.
Only John Deere approved technicians could unlock it. This practice led to an ongoing class action lawsuit over the Right to Repair. The allegation is that John Deere had a monopoly on the service tools their products needed. Apple went another route.
Apple products are designed to be hard to repair. One method is using non-standard screws on the phone. Another is to make the inner workings on the phone all one modular. This makes it hard to replace just one part. Iphone parts also react badly to being swapped in and out.
So, why do companies do this? Pro Right to Repair advocates might call them greedy and just wanting to control the consumer, but what reasons do these companies give for their practices?
One reason is that companies don’t want to deal with third party parts. If a third party has malware or goes cataclysmic wrong, Lithium-ion batteries can explode and Apple doesn’t want their brands associated with exploding phones.
It will do so with the company’s brand all over it. Another reason is that companies don’t want their designs to be poked around in. For instance, if your company had a special technology that made it take 50% less power, you wouldn’t want competitors to reverse-engine your edge on the market.
As things stand now, Things are slowly going to the Pro Right to Repair side. States are passing the Right to Repair legislature. Last year, Joe Biden signed an executive order that was in the favor of the Right to Repair.
The lawsuit to John Deere was allowed to continue last year. Two years ago, Apple softened their stance with their Self Service Repair program.
The Anti Right to Repair side is, however, still lobbying and fighting against the Pro side. All in all, the Right to Repair is still being fought over and the fight doesn’t seem to be ending soon.
