The Short Answer
Eight states have enacted right-to-repair laws for consumer electronics: New York, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Colorado, Washington, Connecticut, and Texas. Most are already in force. Colorado and Washington switched on January 1, 2026, Connecticut's consumer-protection omnibus with repair provisions lands in July 2026, and Texas takes effect September 1, 2026.
PIRG estimates that more than a quarter of Americans now live under an enforceable right-to-repair law.
The core requirement is similar everywhere: manufacturers of digital electronic products must make the parts, tools, documentation, and diagnostic software needed for repair available to owners and independent repair shops on fair and reasonable terms. The differences are in the coverage windows, the exemptions, and whether the state bans parts pairing.
What These Laws Actually Get You
Parts. The same replacement parts the manufacturer's own service network uses, at a fair price, for years after your device was sold.
Tools and documentation. Service manuals, schematics, and any specialty tools or diagnostic software a repair needs. Free where it's digital, at cost where it's physical.
A real choice of repairer. The point of all this is that the corner repair shop can fix what previously only an "authorized service provider" could. More competition, lower quotes, faster turnaround.
What they don't do: cap repair prices, cover every product category (game consoles and medical devices are commonly exempt, and enterprise gear usually is too), or apply retroactively to old devices in most cases. Each law has a cutoff date, and devices sold before it may not be covered.
Parts Pairing: The 2026 Story
Parts pairing is the practice of using software to reject or degrade a replacement part the hardware would happily accept. A genuine screen swapped between two identical phones that throws "unknown part" warnings. A battery that loses health reporting because it wasn't blessed by the manufacturer's server.
Oregon banned it first (SB 1596, for devices made from 2025 on). Colorado and Washington followed on January 1, 2026, and Minnesota and New York restrict the practice in narrower ways. Washington's law also bans the misleading alerts: manufacturers can't nag you with warnings just because a part wasn't paired.
This matters beyond three states. Manufacturers rarely build state-specific firmware, so a parts-pairing ban in Oregon, Colorado, and Washington tends to change behavior everywhere. Apple began walking back pairing restrictions after Oregon's law passed.
State by State
New York - Digital Fair Repair Act, in force since December 2023. The first electronics law, but amendments before signing weakened it: manufacturers can ship assemblies instead of individual parts, and enterprise devices are excluded.
California - SB 244, in force since July 2024. The longest support windows: parts and tools for 3 years on devices priced $50-$99, 7 years on devices $100 and up, reaching back to devices sold from mid-2021.
Minnesota - Digital Fair Repair Act, in force since July 2024. Broad coverage including home appliances with embedded electronics.
Oregon - SB 1596, in force since January 2025. First parts-pairing ban.
Colorado - consumer electronics law in force January 1, 2026. Colorado got there earlier for wheelchairs and farm equipment, and was the second state to ban parts pairing.
Washington - in force January 1, 2026, with a parts-pairing ban and the misleading-alerts prohibition. Signed May 2025.
Connecticut - repair provisions inside a broader consumer-protection omnibus, effective July 2026. Narrower than the dedicated laws above.
Texas - HB 2963, effective September 1, 2026. The biggest state yet to join. Our Texas guide covers it in detail.
Specialized laws exist beyond electronics: Massachusetts pioneered automotive right to repair, and wheelchair repair laws took effect in Oregon and Nevada in January 2026.
What's Coming Next
2026 is a busy year. Over 33 right-to-repair bills were introduced across 13 states in January alone: consumer electronics bills in Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wyoming, farm equipment bills in Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts and Wisconsin, and federal REPAIR and Farm acts still pending in Congress. We track every jurisdiction, including pending bills, on our right to repair tracker.
If your state isn't on the list yet, the practical reality is you still benefit. Manufacturers standardize: parts programs, self-repair stores, and published manuals built for California or Texas compliance are typically offered nationwide.
And whichever state you're in, the law only gets you access to the repair. Whether the repair is worth doing is a different question, one that depends on the quote, the device's age, and what it'd cost to replace. That's the question our free tool answers.
Outside the US? Canada legalized breaking software locks for repair in 2024, and the EU now requires 7 years of phone parts and 5 years of updates.