New York was the first state to turn a digital right-to-repair bill into law and industry experts say it will certainly not be the last, though they hope future bills will be stronger. New York's Digital Fair Repair Act (Senate Bill 4104) requires equipment manufacturers to make diagnostic and repair information for digital electronic parts and equipment available to independent repair providers and consumers, but the bill also carries a broad range of exemptions and will only apply to devices manufactured after July 1, 2023. Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of the Repair Association, told Resource Recycling she hopes bills in 2023 sessions go further than New York's law. "The New York law that was signed didn't get as far as it was supposed to," she said. "It's pretty much limited to consumer electronics and not even a really broad scope at that, so we have a lot of work to do." Many of the exclusions were added after the bill hit Gov. Kathy Hochul's desk. These include motor vehicles, refrigerators, ovens, air conditioning and heating units, power tools, farm equipment and medical devices.
展开▼
