Lobbying records in New York state show Apple, Verizon, and tech trade orgs oppose the Fair Repair Act that would prohibit software locks that restrict repairs
Behind the scenes, Apple is trying to kill legislation that would make it easier for normal people to fix iPhones.
Context & Ripple Effects
This lands mid-campaign: two months earlier, a Nebraska state senator warned that Apple was working against his state's right-to-repair bill, one of similar measures then moving through seven other states. The New York lobbying records show the same playbook running in a second front — Apple joined by Verizon and tech trade organizations rather than fighting alone.
The stakes are specifically software locks, not parts or manuals — the mechanism that lets a manufacturer restrict who can complete a repair. Four years later, reporting showed the strategy had teeth: half of right-to-repair bills across 27 states had been voted down or dismissed amid lobbying from Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon (Bloomberg's accounting of the multi-state fight).
First-order effects
- New York's Fair Repair Act — and the independent repair shops and iPhone owners it would serve — stalls against registered opposition from Apple, Verizon, and the trade groups, keeping software-lock restrictions legal in the state.
Second-order effects
- Apple's visible lobbying gives cover for other device makers and carriers to oppose their own state bills quietly through trade organizations, spreading the cost of the campaign beyond any single company.
Third-order effects
- The state-by-state grind documented here is what makes Apple's later shift notable: by 2023 it voiced support for California's Right to Repair Act, moving the movement's focus toward unsustainable designs and software locks (the California pivot) — after years in which the lobbying posture shown in these records helped kill half the bills introduced.
The trend: Right-to-repair is advancing through a long war of attrition between state legislatures and device makers, with manufacturers' resistance giving way to selective support once bills near passage.