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Google, the maker of the Fitbit smartwatch, the Pixel phone, Chromebooks, and other smart home products, announced this week that it has changed its corporate position: backing a legal right to repair. The news, first reported by 404Media, came as a Google executive spoke in favor of an Oregon state right to repair bill in a hearing on Thursday.
The company also released a white paper, Google and Repairability, that outlines the steps the company has taken to support device repair—such as its collaboration with iFixit announced last year—as well as its changed position on repair. In a blog post, Steven Nickel, the Director of Operations for Devices and Services at Google, wrote that the company endorsed a right to repair bill introduced by Oregon state senator Janeen Sollman. “This legislation represents an inclusive compromise that brings tech companies, small repair companies, environmental leaders, and legislators to the table to find common ground and support the repair movement. This would be a win for consumers who are looking for affordable repair options, for the environment, and for companies that want to invest in making their products more repairable and sustainable,” he wrote.
Right to Repair Advocates Agree
Right to repair advocates said the tech giant’s support was welcome. “It is harder than it should be to fix the devices we use every day,” said U.S. PIRG Senior Right to Repair Campaign Director Nathan Proctor.
As a result, we are making, using and tossing way too much stuff. Google’s support for a strong Right to Repair bill in Oregon, which includes critical parts pairing reforms, gives me hope that we can tackle our tech trash treadmill and keep devices working longer.”
Nathan Proctor, U.S. PIRG
Google isn’t the first tech giant to back right to repair legislation. Apple famously flipped its opposition to a California right to repair bill, which Governor Gavin Newsome passed into law in 2023. The company subsequently called for a federal right to repair law modeled on the legislation passed in California.
So what’s the difference between Google and the other tech giants? For one, they’re actively lobbying to pass right to repair. Google is also backing more comprehensive right to repair legislation than has been passed to date. For example, the company opposes “parts pairing,” a practice used by major manufacturers like Apple to exert granular control over simple repairs like part replacement.
Google Criticizes Replacement Parts
Which isn’t to say that Google’s endorsement is without its faults. The company’s white paper parrots some of the (baseless) concerns about physical safety risks in the repair of personal electronics, and does so as a way to take a swing at a pillar of right to repair laws and advocacy: ready access to replacement parts. While there are certainly fire and physical safety concerns linked to lithium-ion batteries, batteries are generally safe to handle, and the risks are often overstated—especially when compared to the handling and physical safety risks of gasoline or propane, which we readily allow consumers to purchase, transfer, store, and use at home.
So why disparage the sale of individual components in favor of parts assemblies? Well, as iFixit has explained about similar language in the New York state right to repair bill, requiring the sale of parts assemblies where safety is a concern can eliminate some (low-level) risks in electronics repair. However, at a high level, pushing assemblies over discrete part replacement opens the door to OEMs using parts assemblies to indirectly control which repairs happen and which do not. If your smartphone “home button” breaks, for example, being able to purchase a replacement iPhone 8 home button for $20 and install it yourself makes that device easy and affordable to repair. But if that home button is only sold in an “assembly” with a screen and camera for $200, suddenly the scales tilt in favor of replacing (or upgrading) the iPhone 8—deprecating repair in favor of replacement.
More News
Ecovacs Deebot 900
The Ecovacs Deebot 900 is an autonomous robot that vacuums the floors of your home. This page includes repair guides and troubleshooting tips.
View Device- CES Worst In Show Awards: The third-annual Worst in Show Awards called attention to the darkness lurking behind the annual display of consumerism that is the Consumer Electronics Show. The panel of dystopia experts review CES releases, punch through the hype, and reveal the subtle ways that products jeopardize our safety, encourage wasteful overconsumption, and normalize privacy violations. Fight to Repair editor-in-chief Paul Roberts awarded the Worst in Show for cybersecurity to the Chinese robot vacuum maker Ecovacs. An analysis of the device at the recent Chaos Communication Congress in Germany uncovered numerous, serious security flaws and design lapses that put that data at risk of theft or misuse.
- Batterygate checks are getting cashed: Victims of Apple’s batterygate scandal are receiving $92 for their trouble after Apple lost a class-action lawsuit. The company settled the case in 2020 for $500 million and is being forced to pay up to US residents who owned an affected iPhone model and submitted a claim.
- Amsterdam is using repair for good jobs: Migrant tailors and clothing repairers who have moved to Amsterdam have created the United Repair Centre, a business that is fixing clothes rather than making them new. Instead of forcing refugee workers into low-quality jobs, this business is relying on their skills and knowledge to build a thriving business focused on repair.
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