Sen. Mike Tipping introduces bill to guarantee Mainers the right to repair their own electronic devices, support small electronic repair shops in Maine

AUGUSTA – Today, Sen. Mike Tipping, D-Orono, introduced a bill to guarantee Mainers the right to repair their own electronic devices and support small electronic repair shops in Maine. The Legislature’s Housing and Economic Development Committee conducted a public hearing for LD 1908, “An Act to Require the Cooperation of Original Manufacturers of Electronic Devices to Facilitate the Repair of Those Devices by Device Owners and Independent Repair Providers.”

“This bipartisan electronic right to repair bill is designed to protect the rights of Maine people and allow them to fix the stuff they own,” said Sen. Tipping. “It’s also a pocketbook issue. These protections would bring down the costs of repairs for Mainers dramatically while allowing them to extend the life of their devices. It makes a big difference to a family budget if you only have to replace your phone every six years, instead of every three.”

As introduced, the bill would require that manufacturers of digital devices doing business in Maine make the same repair materials they already provide to their repair partners available to device owners and independent repair specialists on fair and reasonable terms.

Testifying in support of the bill, Sheldon Arford, the owner of Maine Computer Services in Augusta, said, “We don’t repair Apple products because it’s near-impossible to get OEM parts for them without buying used parts at outrageous prices. We get dozens of calls a week asking about Apple repairs that we have to give the bad news about. With solid right to repair laws, we could gain access to OEM parts and schematics to allow us to do repairs.”

The bill would include exclusions for motor vehicles, diagnostic medical devices used in hospitals, off-road and farm equipment, generators and power sources, commercial switching gear, security systems and game consoles.

Nationwide, 10 states have passed electronic right to repair laws, and legislation has been introduced in all 50 states.

By the end of the month, the Committee will schedule a work session for LD 1908, vote on the bill and then report it out of the Committee for additional votes in the Senate and House.

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