Interview There is a lot of momentum behind the right to repair movement, and if anyone should know it would be Gay Gordon-Byrne, chief executive of the Repair Association and long-time advocate for repairability.
The right to repair revolution: empowering consumers and challenging industry norms
We spoke with Gordon-Byrne, in an interview you can watch below, to get a sense of the state of the right-to-repair movement in light of the passage of EU reparability laws and news from Colorado that the state Senate passed an expanded right to repair rule.
"The EU does a much better job, I think, of imposing requirements on manufacturers related to design. And we're terrible at it here in the US," Gordon-Byrne told us. But combine Europe's approach with US state laws to expand access to parts and documentation, and the effect "will be very powerful," she predicts.
Consider Apple's decision to switch to USB-C for iPhones – the EU pushed for it. However, America is a different beast, and it may be more feasible to push for reparability at the state rather than the federal level.
