By Nathan Proctor
Right to Repair – the campaign to ensure people have access to the parts, tools and information needed to fix modern equipment – is wrapping another year of significant gains as I write this column for the January issue of TechNation magazine. Here’s my summary of what we’ve accomplished, and why we are not done yet.
5 NEW STATE LAWS
The Right to Repair coalition has been pushing to expand access to repair for more kinds of devices in more places. In 2025, we had our most productive year in state advocacy, passing another six bills in five states.
Oregon, Washington and Nevada passed wheelchair Right to Repair laws with our support, ensuring that the parts, tools and manuals needed to fix power wheelchairs are available. Connecticut, Texas and Washington also passed Right to Repair measures for consumer electronics, expanding the number of states with protections for consumer devices to eight. Approximately one-third of Americans live in a state with some form of Right to Repair protection.
ARMY SETS NEW RULES
In April, the Army issued a new policy memo requiring access to repair materials as part of procurement contracts – everything from weapon systems to medical devices. This move was supported by a strong bipartisan coalition in Congress, though the defense industry scrambled to oppose Congress formalizing these procurement rules. Despite that opposition, support for Right to Repair rules for the military continues to grow.
WHAT’S COMING IN 2026
The Right to Repair campaign continues to have momentum. Despite our gains, repair restrictions are still a major hurdle for many devices. For example, the only medical devices covered by Right to Repair rules are powered wheelchairs.
Our research into the availability of parts and manuals for devices which are clearly covered by the state laws has also found some significant gaps. For example, our report, Leaders and Laggards II in July, reviewed 25 products. Of the products we checked, we could not access a repair manual for 48%, and 44% had no spare parts available. That’s not good enough.
Here are some of our big goals for 2026.
1) Expand Right to Repair coverage to more states, devices
We want to increase the number of states with Right to Repair laws to ensure that Americans can fix their stuff. We are launching several new state efforts around the country after building grassroots throughout the year.
Not only are we looking to expand the number of states, but we are also looking to expand the scope of devices covered. The way I see it, withholding the things people need to fix products they bought is an unfair practice. And there isn’t any product that I believe should be sold in an unfair way. We are particularly looking at how we can expand Right to Repair for medical devices as a key gap in existing protections.
2) Make sure manufacturers are complying
Our work to check on whether manufacturers are providing the required access to parts, tools and service documentation has uncovered some real problems. In some cases, manufacturers need to figure out their systems for making repair materials available. In other cases, we are worried manufacturers will need to be pushed into making those materials available by state attorneys general before doing so. We are working with our coalition to collect and deliver complaints about non-compliance through the website www.repair.org/repair-complaints.
