Right to Repair Is Not Just About Repair
Fast Company ran a piece this week with a headline worth sitting with: "AI makes the right to repair more tempting than ever."
The reporter, Rebecca Heilweil, tells her own story. Dishwasher broken, out of warranty, $500 to fix professionally — but the part cost $100. So she cancelled the repair appointment and turned to ChatGPT. Over a few hours, she unscrewed the machine section by section, photographing each part and sending the pictures to the bot, guessing their way through the innards together until she found the logic board and replaced it herself. Something, she writes, she'd never have dared before. 📱
When people talk about “right to repair,” they often mean the ability to fix a product themselves or choose an independent repair provider instead of using the original manufacturer or its authorized service network.
That is broadly correct—but incomplete.
Right-to-repair legislation is not one universal law. It is a collection of policies addressing access to:
- Replacement parts
- Repair manuals
- Diagnostic tools and software
- Technical specifications
- Firmware and error codes
- Specialized tools
- Independent repair services
- Warranty and repair information
The central issue is not only whether a product can be repaired.
It is whether someone has the information required to understand what is wrong and repair it safely.
What right-to-repair laws typically cover
| Area | What manufacturers may need to provide |
|---|---|
| Parts | Replacement components |
| Information | Manuals, diagrams, specifications, and service instructions |
| Diagnostics | Error codes, testing procedures, and diagnostic software |
| Tools | Specialized physical or digital tools |
| Independent repair | Access for third-party repair providers |
| Warranty | Protection from improper warranty restrictions |
| Product design | Easier disassembly and component replacement |
| Duration | Parts and information for a defined period |
| Manufacturer service | Repair options directly from the manufacturer |
| Disclosure | Information about durability and repairability |
The FTC has identified unavailable parts, tools, manuals, diagnostic software, and restrictive product design as common repair barriers
How the movement differs across regions
| Region | Current approach |
|---|---|
| European Union | Requires repair for certain products, access to repair information, and repair-service support; repair can extend the legal guarantee |
| France | Uses repairability information and repairability scoring to influence consumer choice |
| United Kingdom | Requires spare parts and technical information for certain appliances |
| United States | Developing through state laws, FTC enforcement, warranty rules, and sector-specific legislation |
| New York | Requires covered manufacturers to provide diagnostic and repair information to consumers and independent repairers |
| California | Requires covered electronics and appliances to provide documentation, parts, and tools for three to seven years, depending on the product |
| Canada | Developing federal repairability policy for appliances and consumer electronics, alongside provincial initiatives |
| Australia | Relies primarily on consumer guarantees and sector-specific repair-information requirements |
| Asia | Varies by country; policies generally focus on consumer protection, product durability, recycling, and service access |
The EU framework includes appliances, smartphones, vacuum cleaners, and products containing batteries intended for light means of transport.
The UK, New York, California, and Canada have taken more targeted approaches focused on specific products, information, parts, or repair providers.
The critical distinction
A legal right to repair does not guarantee a practical ability to repair.
| Legal access | Practical repair access |
|---|---|
| Permission to use an independent provider | Ability to identify the failure |
| Access to parts | Ability to select the correct compatible part |
| Access to manuals | Instructions that are understandable and actionable |
| Access to diagnostics | Safe testing, calibration, and validation |
Right to repair is increasingly becoming a right to access the information required to diagnose and resolve a product problem.
Why diagnosis is often harder than repair
Replacing a component may be straightforward. Determining which component has failed is often much harder.
Examples include:
- An e-bike making an unfamiliar sound
- A drone drifting after a repair
- A robotic mower returning repeatedly to its dock
- A 3D printer producing inconsistent layers
- A dishwasher failing to drain
Diagnosis may require combining:
- Product and component identification
- Images and video
- Audio and sound
- Error codes
- Usage history
- Parts compatibility
- Previous repair outcomes
A manual can explain how to replace a motor. It may not explain whether the motor, controller, wiring, or battery is causing the problem.
The hidden bottleneck: fragmented knowledge
Manufacturers often have the necessary information, but it is spread across:
- Engineering documents
- Service manuals
- Parts catalogs
- Dealer portals
- Warranty systems
- Technician notes
- Customer-support conversations
- Product videos
Right to repair is increasingly becoming a right to access the information required to diagnose and resolve a product problem.
What brands need to prepare
To future-proof their businesses, brands need more than a library of manuals. They need an AI-ready product knowledge bank that connects product models and components with symptoms, failure modes, diagnostic pathways, repair procedures, compatible parts, warranty and safety rules, multimedia evidence, and real-world technician and customer outcomes.
The goal is to turn fragmented product information into actionable intelligence that can:
- Identify the product and affected component
- Interpret the customer’s symptoms and evidence
- Diagnose the likely cause
- Recommend the correct part or next step
- Guide a safe repair or escalation
- Learn from the outcome and improve future support
The brands best prepared for right to repair will not simply publish more information. They will build product knowledge systems that make repair intelligence searchable, diagnostic, actionable, and safe—across customers, technicians, dealers, and independent repair providers.
How the economics may change
| Opportunity | Challenge |
|---|---|
| More parts and accessories revenue | Reduced replacement sales |
| Lower unnecessary warranty costs | Higher documentation costs |
| Refurbishment and resale | Greater liability exposure |
| Independent repair partnerships | Inconsistent repair quality |
| Stronger customer loyalty | Counterfeit or incompatible parts |
| Better product-failure data | More warranty disputes |
Repair may shift from an after-sales cost to part of a product’s lifetime value.
Conclusion
Right to repair is often described as the right to fix a product—or to choose an independent provider to fix it.
The deeper issue is access to the knowledge required to understand what is wrong and what to do next.
For hardware companies, preparing for this transition requires more than stocking spare parts. It requires turning product knowledge into an accessible, structured, and AI-ready support infrastructure.
A version of this post also appears on our Substack.