Right to repair has moved from campaign slogan to law in much of the world, and the practical effect is that fixing something you own is becoming possible again rather than deliberately difficult. The rules are real, they are uneven, and most people do not know what they can now demand.
Written September 2026. Requirements differ by country and product category. Check the rules where you live before relying on any specific entitlement.
What right to repair actually requires
The various laws share a common shape. Manufacturers of covered products must make repair possible for a defined period after the last unit is sold, generally by providing four things.
- Spare parts, available to consumers or to independent repairers for a set number of years, at prices that are not deliberately prohibitive.
- Repair information, meaning manuals and diagrams rather than a suggestion to contact support.
- Tools, including the ability to obtain any specialist tool needed, rather than a design that only the maker can open.
- Software support, so a replaced part is accepted by the device rather than rejected by a pairing check.
That last point is the one that decides whether the rest matters. A repair that is mechanically possible but blocked by software pairing is not a repair, and newer rules increasingly say so explicitly.
What tends to be covered
Coverage is by category rather than universal, and the lists have grown over time. Large domestic appliances came first: washing machines, dishwashers, fridges. Displays and televisions followed. Phones and tablets are now covered in the EU, with obligations on parts availability and, importantly, on battery replaceability. Farm and industrial equipment has been a major front in the US.
What is generally not covered: many small kitchen gadgets, most audio equipment, wearables, and a long tail of consumer electronics where the economics of repair were never good anyway.
What this changes for you in practice
- Check repairability before you buy. The EU energy label for phones and tablets now carries a repairability rating alongside efficiency, which makes this a specification you can compare rather than a guess.
- Ask for the part. If a covered product fails outside warranty, the manufacturer is often obliged to sell you or your repairer the part. Many people never ask because they assume the answer is no.
- Use independent repairers with more confidence. The rules are designed to stop repair being restricted to authorised networks, which is what historically made independent repair unreliable.
- Keep the device rather than replacing it. A battery or a screen on a four-year-old phone is a fraction of a new handset, and the environmental arithmetic is not close.
The battery point deserves emphasis because it affects almost everyone. A worn battery is the most common reason a working phone gets replaced, and it is among the cheapest repairs available. Our guide on extending phone battery life covers how to delay that day, and our notes on when to upgrade your phone cover when replacement genuinely is the better call.
The honest limitations
It would be easy to oversell this. Several gaps remain and it is worth knowing them before you rely on the rules.
- Price is only loosely constrained. A part that must be available is not necessarily a part that is affordable, and some manufacturers price to discourage.
- Time limits are finite. Obligations typically run seven to ten years from the last sale, which is a real improvement and not forever.
- Design still wins. Glue, unusual fasteners and layered construction make a legally permitted repair practically hard.
- Enforcement is uneven. Rules are only as good as the market surveillance behind them, and that varies a great deal between countries.
Getting a repair done well
When something breaks, work through it in this order. Check whether it is still in warranty, because that is faster and free. Look up whether your product category is covered where you live. Get a quote from an independent repairer as well as the manufacturer, since the gap is often large. Ask specifically whether a replacement part will need software pairing, because that determines who can do the job. And weigh the repair against the realistic remaining life of the device rather than against the price of a new one on offer.
The broader shift is worth appreciating. For two decades the default assumption was that consumer electronics were disposable. Right to repair does not reverse that on its own, but it removes the manufactured obstacles, and that changes the arithmetic on a great many things sitting in cupboards.
How this changed the market
The rules have had second-order effects that matter as much as the entitlements themselves, and they show up in what is on sale rather than in any legal text.
- Removable batteries are returning. Requirements on battery replaceability have pushed manufacturers back towards designs that do not require heat and solvent to open.
- Repairability is now a specification. Once a rating appears on a label next to energy efficiency, it becomes something buyers compare and marketing departments care about.
- Independent repair has become viable again. Access to parts and documentation is what separates a repair trade from a guessing game.
- Software support periods have lengthened. Extending hardware life is pointless if the operating system stops receiving security updates first, and regulators have noticed.
The environmental arithmetic
Most of the lifetime carbon cost of a device is incurred in manufacturing, not in use. For a phone, the great majority of emissions happen before you switch it on for the first time. That single fact is why keeping a device running for a fifth and sixth year comfortably outperforms replacing it with a more efficient model, and why right to repair is an environmental policy as much as a consumer one.
Common questions
Does right to repair apply to phones? In the EU, yes. Phones and tablets are covered by parts availability and battery replaceability requirements, and carry a repairability rating on the energy label. Coverage elsewhere varies by jurisdiction.
Can a manufacturer refuse to sell me a spare part? For covered product categories, generally not, though some rules route parts through professional repairers rather than direct to consumers. Ask, because many people assume refusal without checking.
What is parts pairing? Software that checks whether a replacement component is one the manufacturer authorised, and degrades or disables function if not. It can defeat an otherwise legal repair, which is why newer rules restrict it.
Is repairing usually cheaper than replacing? For batteries and screens on devices a few years old, almost always. For a major fault in an old appliance the arithmetic is closer, so get a quote before deciding.
Sources and further reading
Where the figures and rules above come from, so you can check them:
- EU ecodesign and repairability requirements: European Commission
- Repairability scoring and teardowns: iFixit
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