Microsoft is throwing its weight behind right-to-repair legislation, making it one of the few largest tech companies to do so.
Like many Big Tech companies, Microsoft has a long history of fighting right-to-repair. Recently, however, Microsoft is changing its tune. According to a report in Grist, Microsoft threw its weight being the Fair Repair Act, a right-to-repair bill in Washington state.
Irene Plenefisch, Microsoft’s senior director of government affairs, sent the following email to Washington Senate’s Environment, Energy, and Technology Committee members:
“I am writing to state Microsoft’s support for E2SHB 1392,” also known as the Fair Repair Act, Plenefisch wrote in an email to the committee. “This bill fairly balances the interests of manufacturers, customers, and independent repair shops and in doing so will provide more options for consumer device repair.”
Grist goes on to report that Microsoft’s involvement is convincing other tech companies to follow suit and engage regulators and legislators in an effort to craft meaningful right-to-repair legislation.
“We are in the middle of more conversations with manufacturers being way more cooperative than before,” Nathan Proctor, who heads the U.S. Public Research Interest Group’s right-to-repair campaign, told Grist. “And I think Microsoft’s leadership and willingness to be first created that opportunity.”
Microsoft’s involvement could create an environment where customers once again have control over their own devices.
