What you need to know
- President Joe Biden has hailed the success of his right-to-repair Executive Order.
- He says companies like Apple and Microsoft are changing their policies as a result of the move.
- The White House says the FTC is going to ramp up enforcement against illegal repair restrictions.
- Apple announced a new repair policy in November that will let customers who are comfortable complete their own repairs.
U.S. President Joe Biden has hailed the success of his right-to-repair Executive Order, stating that companies like Apple and Microsoft are making changes to their policies as a result.
POTUS took to Twitter Monday stating:
When you own a product, you should be able to repair it yourself. That's why I included support for the "right to repair" in my Executive Order.Now, companies like Apple and Microsoft are changing their policies so folks will be able to repair their devices themselves.
It comes as the White House gave a brief update on the initiative, stating that the FTC is going to start ramping up its enforcement against illegal restrictions, Press Secretary Jen Psaki echoed the President's sentiments in a briefing Monday. "Following the executive order's support for the right-to-repair, the FTC will repair — will ramp up enforcement actions against illegal repair restrictions", Psaki told the media. "Since then, big firms like Apple and Microsoft voluntarily announced changes to their policies so that consumers can readily repair their own phones and laptops."
In November of 2021, Apple announced its own Self Service repair program for its best iPhones, the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13, stating it would begin letting customers who are comfortable completing their own repairs purchase genuine parts and tools for DIY device repairs. Apple also plans to add support for its M1 Mac range including the MacBook Air with M1 and 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1 soon after.
At the time, Apple's COO Jeff Williams said "Creating greater access to Apple genuine parts gives our customers even more choice if a repair is needed", noting the company had nearly doubled its service locations with access to genuine parts, tools, and training in the previous three years.
Staunch right to repair advocates iFixit hailed the move as a "major step in the journey" towards right-to-repair but said the company would like to see Apple move to an even more open repair model.
