Apple pioneered the use of dirty tricks and lobbying to kill Right to Repair legislation, but they're not the only tech player who's putting lobbying muscle into ensuring that you can't decide who fixes your stuff (and when it is "unfixable" and must be sent to the landfill).
Rep. Jeff Morris told iFixit Repair Radio that national Right to Repair legislation was killed by Microsoft, in a piece of horse trading that saw Microsoft backing funding for STEM education in exchange for Right to Repair (and unrelated privacy rules) dying.
In an interview on iFixit’s Repair Radio, Rep. Jeff Morris said that “word on the street” was that Microsoft, “marshalled forces to keep the bill from moving out of the House Rules committee.”He claimed “there was a tax proposal here … to pay for STEM education,” and that “in exchange for Microsoft support[ing that tax,] having Right to Repair die…” was a condition, as well as another privacy policy Microsoft wanted to advance.
“Microsoft was going around telling our members that they wouldn’t sell Surface Tablets in Washington any longer if we passed the bill,” he said.
Microsoft named as stopping “Right to Repair” in Washington [Nathan Proctor/Medium]
(via /.)
