Around 20 security experts have united with Securepairs.org to support right-to-repair legislation with expert witnesses at hearings across the US
Context & Ripple Effects
Right-to-repair bills have been moving through US statehouses since at least Nebraska's 2017 proposal, which Apple openly opposed while similar bills advanced in seven other states. The industry counter-campaign has been sustained: by 2021, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon were lobbying against the bills, with half of all proposals across 27 states voted down or dismissed.
This story marks a shift in the movement's tactics: rather than relying on consumer advocates alone, around 20 security experts organized through Securepairs.org to testify as expert witnesses at hearings nationwide — directly targeting the security objections that manufacturers have used to argue independent repair is dangerous.
First-order effects
- State lawmakers weighing repair bills now hear credentialed security testimony contesting manufacturers' safety arguments, weakening the strongest talking point in Apple's and peers' opposition playbook.
Second-order effects
- With the security objection contested in hearings, the lobbying effort documented in Bloomberg's reporting on Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon has to lean harder on cost and IP arguments, where public sympathy is thinner.
Third-order effects
- If expert-backed testimony keeps eroding the security rationale, the fight moves from whether repair should be legal to how far it goes — the territory The Verge flagged after Apple endorsed California's Right to Repair Act: unsustainable designs and software locks.
The trend: Right-to-repair is shifting from a consumer-advocacy fight against manufacturer resistance to a legitimacy contest decided by whose expert testimony lawmakers trust.