Nebraska state senator warns that Apple is opposing the state's proposed “right to repair” bill; similar bills are making their way through 7 other states
Apple is inventing new and interesting arguments to prevent you from fixing your iPhone: It's lobbying Nebraska lawmakers to kill …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Nebraska bill is one front in a widening fight: similar right-to-repair proposals are advancing in seven other states, and lobbying records from New York already showed Apple, Verizon, and tech trade groups opposing a Fair Repair Act that would bar software locks on repairs.
The pattern has held since this report: Bloomberg later tallied half of such bills across 27 states voted down or dismissed, with Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon all lobbying against them, while an Apple executive opposed Oregon's stronger bill in 2024 even after backing a weaker California law.
First-order effects
- Nebraska lawmakers deciding the bill's fate are being directly lobbied by Apple, which argues against independent iPhone repair access in the state.
- Independent repair shops and device owners in Nebraska and the seven other states with active bills continue to face software locks and restricted parts that the legislation would remove.
Second-order effects
- Apple and allied companies like Verizon and the tech trade groups are forced into expensive state-by-state lobbying campaigns rather than facing a single national rule, as the New York and Oregon fights show.
- Pro-repair advocates gain institutional counterweights: security experts organized through Securepairs.org began testifying at hearings specifically to rebut industry safety arguments.
Third-order effects
- If even a few of the eight state bills pass, manufacturers face a patchwork of repair-access mandates that raises pressure for uniform policy and erodes the control over post-sale servicing that underpins their repair revenue.
- A sustained split — Apple supporting weak laws like California's while opposing stronger ones elsewhere — points to a structural fight over who owns the right to service devices after sale, with legislatures becoming the arbiter.
The trend: Right-to-repair is consolidating into a durable multi-state legislative battleground where device makers lobby statehouse by statehouse against mandated access to parts, tools, and unlocked diagnostics.