The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expected to release its long-awaited report on repair restrictions on Monday, April 26. What does it mean for the Right to Repair movement?
The report due Monday follows the FTC’s July 2019 “Nixing the Fix” workshop, where the agency heard from dozens of technicians, advocates, and fixers about how manufacturers deny warranty service, price-gouge for manuals and replacement parts, and otherwise frustrate repair and lock out independent repair shops. After an order from Congress and demands from over 15,000 Americans to take action on repair, the FTC is making its findings and recommendations public. “So bust out the popcorn while we take you through our hottest hot takes–complete with our CEO’s own Not-A-Flamethrower to show you how hot these takes are,” iFixit said in a statement.
iFixit’s Kerry Maeve Sheehan and Kyle Wiens will join the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Cory Doctorow and other leaders from the Right to Repair movement for a press-only panel discussion via Zoom Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. Eastern/ 1 p.m. Pacific to share the most important takeaways for Right to Repair. The panelists will be available to answer questions after the discussion.
Who:
- • Moderator: Cory Doctorow, Electronic Frontier Foundation, special advisor
- • Kyle Wiens, iFixit, CEO and co-founder
- • Kerry Sheehan, iFixit, U.S. policy lead
- • Nathan Proctor, US PIRG, Right to Repair campaign director
- • Gay Gordon-Byrne, the Repair Association, executive director
When: Monday, April 26, 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT
Where: A secret Zoom link we’ll send you when people RSVP.
BTW, it was not released yesterday.