The New York State Senate this month voted in favor of legislation providing public access to electronic device repair tools and resources. A tight legislative timeline meant it didn’t advance further, but repair advocates called it a milestone achievement.
New York Senate Bill 4104 “enacts the Digital Fair Repair Act,” which requires electronic device manufacturers to provide diagnostic and repair information to customers.
It’s one of numerous right-to-repair bills introduced in state legislatures across the U.S. this year. But despite the flurry of activity signaling greater interest in such proposals, no right-to-repair bills have cleared a floor vote of a legislative chamber before.
That changed this week. The New York Senate on June 10 approved the bill by a vote of 49-14. The state’s legislative session concluded that same day, and the bill did not move to an Assembly vote before adjournment, meaning it will not advance this session.
Still, advocates said the move carried significance.
Nathan Proctor, right-to-repair campaign director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG), described the vote as an “important milestone.”
“We keep getting closer, and eventually we will win,” he said in a statement. “While the passage of this bill is a big step in the right direction, we aren’t going to stop until people have the laws they need to fix their stuff.”
Repair hub iFixit, which also supports right-to-repair efforts nationwide, said the vote was a sign that the repair movement had “moved the needle.”
