What Does the Right-to-Repair Movement Mean for Your Business?

26 May, 2026

What Does the Right-to-Repair Movement Mean for Your Business?

Eight U.S. states have passed electronics right-to-repair laws, and as of January 2026, over a quarter of Americans live in states with enforceable repair protections. Legislation has been introduced in all 50 states, affecting product design, warranty terms, IT asset management, and how you think about end of life for the things your company makes or buys. 

We’re breaking down what these laws actually require, why the push is accelerating, and what manufacturers and enterprise IT teams should do about it now rather than later.

What Right to Repair Is and Why It’s Gaining Speed 

The core idea is simple. Building the device doesn’t prevent other people from fixing it. Right-to-repair reforms require manufacturers to provide owners of products and independent repair technicians with parts, tools, and manuals. And the environmental argument for the movement is hard to argue against. 

In 2022, the UN’s Global E-Waste Monitor found that limited repair options and shortened product life cycles increased the number of electronic devices sent to landfills. For example, a $600 laptop winds up in the trash because of a $12 part that only the manufacturer can replace. Multiply that across millions of units, and you can see why lawmakers got interested. 

Manufacturers’ concerns about product safety, intellectual property, and quality control when third parties perform repairs are not unfounded. But the legislative direction is clear, and the window for lobbying against it appears to be closing. Companies that spend energy fighting these laws might be better off spending it on adapting to them.

How These Laws Affect Manufacturers and Enterprise IT 

The right to repair has direct implications on how manufacturers design products, how enterprises manage IT teams, and how companies structure their warranty and support programs.

Product Design Will Need to Prioritize Repairability 

These laws would force manufacturers to make parts, repair documentation, and diagnostic tools available to independent shops and consumers. In states like Colorado and Oregon, companies also cannot use parts pairing to prevent third-party repairs or to cause misleading alerts when non-OEM components are installed. 

For product teams, this likely means revisiting some design decisions — for example, modular components that can be swapped without specialized factory equipment or batteries that can be replaced without desoldering. However, it will take prioritizing repairability along with performance and cost in the design stage, which, to be fair, hasn’t been the industry default for a while.

Warranty and Support Policies Need a Rethink

Some right-to-repair laws prevent manufacturers from voiding warranties simply because a consumer or independent shop made a repair. Companies still tying warranty coverage to “authorized service only” language will need to revise their terms. That means a customer who has a laptop keyboard replaced at a local repair shop shouldn’t lose the manufacturer’s warranty on the rest of the machine.

For the OEMs, there is an opportunity here. Embracing repair-friendly warranty policies may actually lower their warranty costs. An independent $40 repair to keep a device in service is way cheaper than a $400 warranty replacement. Some forward-thinking manufacturers are already creating authorized repair networks that include independent shops, expanding coverage without expanding headcount.

Enterprise IT Can Extend Device Lifecycles and Cut Costs 

For IT departments managing fleets of laptops, phones, and tablets for hundreds or thousands of employees, the right to repair is mostly good news. Increased access to OEM parts and repair documentation means more opportunities to extend device life cycles. Rather than becoming e-waste, a bad hinge or dying battery can be repaired and returned to service through a qualified repair partner such as Close the Loop.

For instance, if your organization replaces devices on a three-year cycle and repair access lets you extend that to four years, you’ve just cut 25% of your annual hardware refresh budget. You can also significantly reduce e-waste output, which matters for ESG reporting and sustainability commitments.

Adapting to the Right to Repair With Close the Loop

The number of states implementing right-to-repair rules is growing, the product categories are expanding, and the political support reaches across party lines. Companies taking steps now to embrace it through smarter product design, updated warranty policies, and repair-friendly IT asset management (ITAD) will be ahead of the curve, rather than scrambling to catch up.

That’s where Close the Loop comes in. Our repair and refurbishment services are designed for precisely such an environment. Our technicians work in ESD-safe facilities in Texas and Mexicali, handling everything from screen replacement and motherboard repair to full cosmetic refurbishment, in volumes ranging from one-off batches to thousands of units per month. All of our repairs are performed using OEM-approved procedures, with each unit undergoing rigorous QA testing before it’s returned to service. Contact us today to see how we can help.