4 - Breaking Repair

Summary

This chapter outlines the sophisticated array of strategies and techniques that today’s device makers have developed to discourage and obstruct repair. Firms rely on product design, economic manipulation, and consumer persuasion to steer us away from repair and keep us buying new devices year after year. They use hardware and software design to erect practical barriers to repair. They charge unnecessarily high prices for repair or refuse to fix products at all. At the same time, they deny independent repair providers access to parts and tools necessary to meet consumer demand. And through subtle and explicit messaging, they discourage consumers from even attempting repairs.