In May 2024, US Senator Ron Wyden introduced the Fair Repair Act. This legislation is designed to guarantee consumers and small businesses the right to repair their own products by requiring OEMs to make diagnostic repair information, tools, and parts readily available. The Fair Repair Act is cosponsored by Congressman Joe Morelle (D-NY) and Senator Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM).
FreeICT USA is supportive of Wyden’s leadership on this issue, and we have recently wrote a letter to the Senator outlining our support for the legislation and drawing attention to the aspect of Enterprise IT when it comes to the right to repair. Read our letter below:
Dear Senator Wyden,
We thank you for introducing the Fair Repair Act of 2024. This legislation empowers consumers and businesses to repair their products, benefiting independent repair businesses like ours.
FreeICT USA advocates for open markets and opposes anti-competitive barriers in enterprise IT hardware and software support and repair. We appreciate the Act’s focus on software repair, a critical issue for our members.
While the right to repair often centers on consumer products, enterprise hardware and software is a largely overlooked segment. Companies face restrictive, anti-competitive software agreements from major manufacturers. These limitations hinder IT support of perfectly functioning hardware and software and leave CIOs at the mercy of tech giants
Enterprise IT underpins our economy. CIOs, managing substantial hardware and software budgets, should determine the best course for their companies—not the tech giants. Many businesses prefer on-premises systems but encounter obstacles to repair and support. However, they often face confusion or misinformation (or intimidation) regarding repair and support options when the vendors are trying to force a move to their cloud strategy.
FreeICT USA promotes successful United States policies that allow companies using software or infrastructure from Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, HPE, Dell, or IBM to have their preferred vendor maintain or repair them rather than the only choice to be beholding to the OEM vendor.
We would appreciate the opportunity to brief your appropriate staff contact on how we can support your legislation and act as a conduit to the growing independent software/hardware repair and maintenance industry.
Thank you once again for your leadership on this issue.
