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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | February 3, 2023 03:52 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Nick Pisciottano |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Making the Marketplace Fairer with the Right to Repair |
| If you purchase costly equipment, you own it, and you should have the ability to repair it. Whether it's a cell phone, a refrigerator, a ventilator, or a complex piece of farming machinery, you should have access to the parts, tools, and information to maintain and repair your personal property if you so choose. Unfortunately, that is not always the case due to manufacturers who limit the ability to repair their products by claiming repair information is proprietary and forcing consumers to either purchase a new device or buy repair services from only manufacturer-authorized locations. Such restrictions cost consumers significant amounts of money on repairs at manufacturer-authorized repair locations that are, in turn, dependent on the manufacturer for access to the parts, tools, and information necessary for repairs. This creates multiple feedback loops where consumer choice is restricted, and the manufacturer can charge the consumer for both the purchase and the repair of the device, potentially multiple times over, as well as the repairer for access to the required information and parts. In many cases, a consumer may simply purchase another device rather than deal with the headache and cost of a repair which results in many easily repairable, broken devices consigned to landfills. To protect consumers, I plan to introduce Right-to-Repair legislation that ensures fair treatment in the marketplace, saving time and money for Pennsylvanians while promoting the growth of a segment of the economy focused on extending the useful life of our products. My legislation will require manufacturers to provide device owners diagnostic and repair information along with access to parts and tools at reasonable prices to consumers and independent repair shops. You wouldn’t want to own a car that used tires that couldn’t be changed without the manufacturer’s assistance, or that would only accept a certain brand of windshield wiper fluid sold only by the manufacturer, so why should repair assets for other large or small consumer goods be limited in those same ways? This Right to Repair legislation creates a free and fair market for the maintenance and repair of products that allows small businesses and consumers access to the full use of the products they’ve purchased. Please join me by supporting those efforts by co-sponsoring this legislation. |