FTC and DOJ Advocate for Expanded Right to Repair

The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have submitted a comment to the U.S. Copyright Office in support of expanding exemptions to allow more comprehensive rights to repair for consumers and businesses.

• The FTC and DOJ are seeking to extend the right to repair to include commercial and industrial equipment, aiming to promote competition and reduce repair costs.
• The proposed exemptions would cover commercial soft serve machines, proprietary diagnostic kits, programmable logic controllers, and enterprise IT.
• The inability to perform third-party repairs has led to increased costs and significant sales losses, with soft serve machine breakdowns costing businesses $625 daily.
• The move follows previous exemptions for jailbreaking cellphones and repairing video game consoles, and is part of a broader push to make repairs easier and cheaper.
• The Copyright Office's decision could significantly impact the repairability of products, with the FTC and DOJ advocating for fewer restrictions on third-party repairs.

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