Joe Biden Officially Speaks Out On Consumers’ ‘Right To Repair’ Electronics

In July last year, it was reported that the Biden Administration would work with the US Federal Trade Commission to implement new rules to stop manufacturers from limiting consumers’ right to repair electronic products on their own.

Now, President Joe Biden has verbally backed consumers in the public debate, becoming the first sitting President to comment on the matter, acknowledging that companies have created “repair monopolies” that make it difficult for consumers to fix gadgets they rightfully own.

“Too many areas, if you own a product, from a smartphone to a tractor, you don’t have the freedom to choose how or where to repair that item you purchase,” said President Biden, as per The Hill.

“It’s broke. Well what do I do about it if it’s broke, you had to go to the dealer and you had to pay the dealer’s cost, the dealer’s price. If you tried to fix it yourself, some manufacturers actually would void the warranty,” he explained.

According to Vice, the president’s statements were in reference to Apple, John Deere, and certain video game console manufacturers, who violated the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act by labeling products with “warranty void if removed” stickers.

Surprisingly, it seems that companies have agreed to the new push, with the president revealing that many of them, such as Microsoft and Apple, have voluntarily changed their policies instead of being ordered to do so.

“It’s going to make it easy for millions of Americans to repair their electronics instead of paying an arm and a leg to repair or just throwing a device out,” Biden added.

[via Vice and The Hill, cover image via Shutterstock]