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The Federal Trade Commission Votes to Support 'Right to Repair'
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced its plans to increase enforcement against illegal repair restrictions placed on products by manufacturers. Repair restrictions prevent purchasers from repairing their own products or utilizing other repair service providers.
According to the May 2021 FTC report, “Nixing the Fix: An FTC Report to Congress on Repair Restrictions” manufacturers have restricted the consumer’s right to repair in many ways without reasonable justification. Manufacturers imposed restrictions including physical restrictions (e.g., the use of adhesives), limiting the availability of parts to only their authorized repair networks, using designs to make independent repairs less safe, and disparagement of non-OEM (non-original equipment manufacturer) parts and independent repair. The FTC plans to investigate and enforce violations under both warranty and antitrust laws. Relevant statutes include the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. § 2301 et seq.), Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. § 45(a)(1)), and the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C. § 1-7).
For more information on the right to repair, see “Nixing the Fix: An FTC Report to Congress on Repair Restrictions”. If you would like to research consumer protection and antitrust laws, check out some of the following titles from our collection:
Antitrust Law
- Antitrust Law: An Analysis of Antitrust Principles and Their Application (Print and Cheetah Onsite)
- Principles of Antitrust (West Academic)
- The Law of Antitrust, An Integrated Handbook (West Academic)
- Federal Antitrust Policy, The Law of Competition and Its Practice (West Academic)
Consumer Protection Law
- Consumer Warranty Law: Magnuson-Moss, Lemon Law, UCC, Used Car, Manufactured Home, and Other Warranty Statutes (Print)
- Consumer Protection Law in a Nutshell (West Academic)
- Commercial and Consumer Warranties - Drafting, Performing, and Litigating (LexisNexis Digital Library)
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