Washington Governer Signs Right to Repair Bill

[JTuyen]

Summary

Governer Bob Ferguson has signed two Right to Repair bills into law. The bills focus on making consumer electronics and mobility devices (such as powered wheelchairs) more repairable by requiring manufacturers to provide parts to repair their devices, as well as restricting parts pairing.

 

Quotes

Quote

Washington is the sixth state to enact such a law, which calls for manufacturers of consumer electronics to provide the parts, repair tools and information required to fix products such as laptops, smartphones and home appliances[...]

 

The law goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, and covers most electronic products and parts that were manufactured, sold or used in Washington on or after July 1, 2021. The law does not apply to video game consoles, motor vehicles, medical devices, or farm tractors.

 

My thoughts

This is a big win for consumers and independent repair shops. It's great that people can choose to repair it themselves, go to an independent repair shop, or go straight through the manufacturer and prolong the life of their devices.

 

Sources

 

https://www.geekwire.com/2025/washington-governor-signs-right-to-repair-law-giving-consumers-more-control-on-fixing-electronics/#:~:text=Washington is the sixth state,laptops%2C smartphones and home appliances.

 

[Dutch_Master]

Yeah, except it doesn't apply to (expensive) stuff consumers actually want repaired, like:

1 hour ago, JTuyen said:

video game consoles, motor vehicles, medical devices, or farm tractors.

The words "hollow" and "victory" come to mind

[Millios]

3 minutes ago, Dutch_Master said:

Yeah, except it doesn't apply to (expensive) stuff consumers actually want repaired, like:

The words "hollow" and "victory" come to mind

A step at a time

It isnt the biggest step but to say its bad cause it was a start rather than 50% of the way to the ideal aint a good way to see it especially when stuff like

1 hour ago, JTuyen said:

 consumer electronics and mobility devices (such as powered wheelchairs)

Are explicitly included I see it as a strong way to fight back

[porina]

1 hour ago, Dutch_Master said:

Yeah, except it doesn't apply to (expensive) stuff consumers actually want repaired, like:

Not an expert in the area, but I believe cars are already covered by something similar. So it would be redundant at best, or confusing at worse to cover it again.

 

Medical devices might be a special case, especially when it comes to any device that could have life or death implications if it goes faulty. Would need to see how the bill defines it. If you ever looked at electronic components, the datasheets of them will usually include a clause specifically prohibiting their use in applications where its failure could have life changing consequences.

[TempestCatto]

Apple is not gonna like this one. 

[Millios]

3 minutes ago, porina said:

Not an expert in the area, but I believe cars are already covered by something similar. So it would be redundant at best, or confusing at worse to cover it again.

 

Medical devices might be a special case, especially when it comes to any device that could have life or death implications if it goes faulty. Would need to see how the bill defines it. If you ever looked at electronic components, the datasheets of them will usually include a clause specifically prohibiting their use in applications where its failure could have life changing consequences.

Cars I believe already were RtR exluded under special circumstances due to modding which has been a thing for decades and most of them use 1 to maybe 3(?) different companies for components (engines, suspensions etc etc) like (if I remember correctly) Toyota makes over 50% of all engines so parts were already in excess and high availability to the point mechanics with brand loyalty were the issue rather than the actual parts

Special cases like lambos and ferraris are another matter tho cause they "require" a special technician or you void warranty but you still technically can do it yourself or get a 3rd party mechanic

 

Medical devices are a more... undefined subject because you cant 100% describe them all with 1 definition unless you make it SUPER broad. For example a dialysis machine is a medical device but do we also consider joint replacements? Prosthetics? Pacemakers? Do we include heart monitors and defibs? Diabetes insulin patches? It'll depend on what they decide to include and what not rather than how they define it

[OddOod]

2 hours ago, Millios said:

to say its bad

But Dutch didn't say it was bad. They said that it was a hollow victory. Which it is. 
I mean, the video's thumbnail literally says "we win" as if it's over, which it isn't.

 

56 minutes ago, porina said:

believe cars are already covered by something similar

Ish. Very vaguely. 
There was a law ages ago that forced car makers to make replacement parts available on the open market which is why independent mechanics are able to function. But it's been defanged over the decades, otherwise we'd be allowed to run open source software on OEM head units. This is a thing I'm furious about because car makers are utterly trash software writers and allowing head units to be open sourced would allow consumers to fix utterly baffling, horrendous design decisions

[Millios]

2 minutes ago, OddOod said:

But Dutch didn't say it was bad. They said that it was a hollow victory. Which it is. 
I mean, the video's thumbnail literally says "we win" as if it's over, which it isn't.

A Pyrrhic victory (PIRR-ik) is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Such a victory negates any true sense of achievement or damages long-term progress.

(pyrrhic victory and hollow victory are pretty much the same in terms of meaning)

It has a negative connotation to say the least

 

About the news tho....Idk it seems more of "how do you take it". If there are no further fights aka we stop here then absolutely its a hollow victory. If this leads to further legislation, laws and policies to counteract  the anti RtR stance companies got its anything but hollow since its teh first step we took to fight back

There are other examples of policies that started as what some would describe hollow vitctories but ended up as fully fledged victories the ppl wanted for a long time. Most of them that come to mind (for me) however have a LONG and sad history due to what caused them all of which are more touchy subjects so I will refrain from mentioning them publicly for viewer discretion

[StDragon]

You all saw the waste, fraud, and abuse as reported by DOGE.
 

Quote

The law does not apply to video game consoles, motor vehicles, medical devices, or farm tractors.

Lobbyist are going to lobby...news at 11.
 

4 minutes ago, Millios said:

A Pyrrhic victory (PIRR-ik) is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Such a victory negates any true sense of achievement or damages long-term progress.

You must win battles before you can win the war. You have to start somewhere, and it's a good start which is better than none at all.

[OddOod]

7 minutes ago, Millios said:

A Pyrrhic victory (PIRR-ik) is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Such a victory negates any true sense of achievement or damages long-term progress.

(pyrrhic victory and hollow victory are pretty much the same in terms of meaning)

It has a negative connotation to say the least

 

Weird. I see the internet agrees with you that a hollow and a pyrrhic victory have the same meaning but I've always felt there was a significant difference. Fully agree on the meaning of pyrrhic, but to me a hollow victory just means one that wasn't significant, not one that cost too much. 
That being said, this does seem to have cost political capital and may well delay further progress. 
But hey, a win's a win. 
Thanks for the lesson!

[porina]

1 hour ago, Millios said:

It'll depend on what they decide to include and what not rather than how they define it

Same difference. What is covered is covered, what isn't, isn't. They have to make that distinction somewhere.

 

59 minutes ago, OddOod said:

But it's been defanged over the decades, otherwise we'd be allowed to run open source software on OEM head units. This is a thing I'm furious about because car makers are utterly trash software writers and allowing head units to be open sourced would allow consumers to fix utterly baffling, horrendous design decisions

Is that going a bit wider in scope? I'd see right to repair as the flexibility not to be tied in to manufacturer approved repairers and parts. Unless you have a really exotic car, 3rd party parts are often much cheaper than the manufacturer parts. To me rewriting software would go into modding.

[StDragon]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

3rd party parts are often much cheaper than the manufacturer parts.

More often than not you do get what you pay for. But that's not the point. By having competition in the first place via alternatives, it keeps the OEM pricing honest. So instead of charging 2x or 3x for the OEM price, having 3rd party alternatives would put market pressure on the OEMs to charge for say, something like 1.2x instead.

Meaning, indirectly everyone benifits even if you choose nothing but OEM parts anyways due to better QA/QC

[Dutch_Master]

1 hour ago, Millios said:

pyrrhic victory and hollow victory are pretty much the same in terms of meaning

No, they really have a different meaning. The general public doesn't appreciate the differences between these words, primarily as they don't understand one of them (have a guess which ) and media outlets don't help by piling them on the same heap b/c they know most readers (media-consumers!) don't understand the word pyrrhic. Somebody else already explained so I'm not repeating that.

1 hour ago, Millios said:

It has a negative connotation to say the least

Yes, and that was my intention. The exclusion of "right to repair" for expensive farm equipment (i.e. John Deer stuff) is a direct result of lobbying by the green giant to keep their money-making schemes intact. Farmers get stuck with artificially inflated repair bills that then have to be passed on to their customers and via that chain will eventually be paid by you, the American consumer. (I'm in EU-land, so not as affected as you lot) If that farmer has the right to repair his expensive tractor by swapping out a 100 dollar PCB or 20 bucks sensor by himself, John Deer (and undoubtedly others in that industry as well) won't be able to charge $5k for the exact same repair and JD sees that as an existential threat to their business model.

 

Sadly, apart from being ludicrously hypocrite, the "America First" regulations/laws effectively banning foreign companies selling their modern stuff on the US market are stifling competition and make US manufacturers complacent and dishonest. Not unlike Intel in the run up to, and early stages of, AMD Ryzen launching in 2017. More evidence can be seen on the YT channel of Bruce Wilson, who succeeded to get a 2025 model US spec semi from Swedish maker Scania into the US. He's banned from moving stuff commercially with it, but is allowed to drive his truck on the open road and demonstrate it to fellow truckers. The permit also has a time limit, IIRC just one year.

[Millios]

9 minutes ago, Dutch_Master said:

No, they really have a different meaning. The general public doesn't appreciate the differences between these words, primarily as they don't understand one of them (have a guess which ) and media outlets don't help by piling them on the same heap b/c they know most readers (media-consumers!) don't understand the word pyrrhic. Somebody else already explained so I'm not repeating that.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hollow_victory

quote:

hollow victory (plural hollow victories)

1. (sometimes proscribed)^[1][2] A Pyrrhic victory; an empty victory that is not worth winning because so much is lost in order to achieve it.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pyrrhic-victory

quote:

Pyrrhic victory, a success that brings such significant harm to the victor that it differs little from defeat. Although the triumphant party in a Pyrrhic victory is considered the overall winner, the costs incurred and their future repercussions diminish the sense of genuine success. It is sometimes known as a hollow victory.

 

https://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/hollow+victory.html

They are similar idioms

 

TL DR they are the same

 

Also @OddOod (srr to bother but I like to attribute everything to the correct person) didnt explain it, they shared what they believed it was prior to me sharing the actual meaning with them even saying

1 hour ago, OddOod said:

 Fully agree on the meaning of pyrrhic, BUT TO ME a hollow victory just means one that wasn't significant, not one that cost too much. 

Which is them explaining what they refer to as a hollow victory regardless of the literary use and definitive definition based on dictionaries saying they are one and the same rather than different in meaning

[Kisai]

6 hours ago, Millios said:

Cars I believe already were RtR exluded under special circumstances due to modding which has been a thing for decades

This is how people dodged emissions controls, and why companies like Volkswagon got their ass handed to them, because they made the vehicles just lie about the emissions. It is well known both in California and in Vancouver BC (while the aircare program existed) that people would tune their vehicles to pass the emissions test, and then turn it back up to ignore it.

 

RtR rules really need to be explicit about the difference between "repair/replace" and "reverse engineer", you should be allowed to tinker, but not be allowed to profit off of modifications to defeat health/safety laws that are in place. If your tinkering breaks copyright/patents, who cares, it's just your vehicle, but if you sell instructions (see 3d printed guns) on how to circumvent laws, then you rightfully should be unable to profit from the illegal activity.

 

Personally, I'm of the opinion that the average person is not competent to repair electronics (eg smart phones) or mechanics (think mechanical watches) once they scale down to a level that you need a magnifying glass or a microscope to work on them. Replacing the screen on a broken phone, or laptop is not in the wheelhouse of anyone except people who have these skills. This is why I want to see a return to replaceable batteries in electronics.  Of all the parts that should be end-user replaceable, it should be the battery.

 

 

[OddOod]

4 hours ago, Dutch_Master said:

The general public doesn't appreciate the differences between these words

Who is the arbiter of what words mean than the people who use them? 
It's a silly hill to die on, don't. 

[Millios]

11 hours ago, Kisai said:

This is how people dodged emissions controls, and why companies like Volkswagon got their ass handed to them, because they made the vehicles just lie about the emissions. It is well known both in California and in Vancouver BC (while the aircare program existed) that people would tune their vehicles to pass the emissions test, and then turn it back up to ignore it.

 

RtR rules really need to be explicit about the difference between "repair/replace" and "reverse engineer", you should be allowed to tinker, but not be allowed to profit off of modifications to defeat health/safety laws that are in place. If your tinkering breaks copyright/patents, who cares, it's just your vehicle, but if you sell instructions (see 3d printed guns) on how to circumvent laws, then you rightfully should be unable to profit from the illegal activity.

 

Personally, I'm of the opinion that the average person is not competent to repair electronics (eg smart phones) or mechanics (think mechanical watches) once they scale down to a level that you need a magnifying glass or a microscope to work on them. Replacing the screen on a broken phone, or laptop is not in the wheelhouse of anyone except people who have these skills. This is why I want to see a return to replaceable batteries in electronics.  Of all the parts that should be end-user replaceable, it should be the battery.

100% agree with you on that one

Modding and or making illegal add-ons such as whistlers(depending on how loud they are they are illegal), the emission tuning you mentioned and other stupid mods like smog injectors (actually a thing btw) and license plate covers should be rewarded with punishment

+The average joe while not able to do the repairs alone should have the option for alternative cheaper 3rd party repairs from 3rd party technicians

 

I am only against limiting the supply of actual replacements and or doing other such BS to make it harder to do repairs. Apple for example locks functions unless you get specifically their parts specifically from their techs specifically in their shops (actually did that for a long while)

[StDragon]

4 hours ago, Millios said:

I am only against limiting the supply of actual replacements and or doing other such BS to make it harder to do repairs.

Law breakers are going to law break. If the part can be smuggled in, it will also be installed and engineered to break the law. The problem isn't the parts insomuch as lack of enforcement to punish criminals.

 

My biggest pet peeve are those shitty LED headlight bulbs that are well over 2.5k lumens and don't have proper lensing/deflection to keep the focus down closer to the road. So what you get is everyone driving around with what effectively high beams on all the time. Did I mention they're really blindingly bright!?

 

Let us repair. But do go after those that violate the law; be it the smugglers and consumers of such illegal products.

[Millios]

7 minutes ago, StDragon said:

Law breakers are going to law break. If the part can be smuggled in, it will also be installed and engineered to break the law. The problem isn't the parts insomuch as lack of enforcement to punish criminals.

 

My biggest pet peeve are those shitty LED headlight bulbs that are well over 2.5k lumens and don't have proper lensing/deflection to keep the focus down closer to the road. So what you get is everyone driving around with what effectively high beams on all the time. Did I mention they're really blindingly bright!?

 

Let us repair. But do go after those that violate the law; be it the smugglers and consumers of such illegal products.

Nah I like em (not support them in any way) cause of this meme

Other than that ye

Punish the illegal not the conscious consumer