Following reports last month on Apple’s planned opposition to a new “right to repair” bill being tabled in Nebraska, the iPhone maker has apparently begun low-key lobbying efforts in the state, according to BuzzFeed News. Nebraska is one of eight states considering “right to repair” legislation that would require manufacturers to provide repair manuals and parts to independent repair shops. Proponents of the bill claim that this would result in customers having more options to fix their devices and ultimately lower repair costs, while those companies opposing the bill, including Apple, Samsung, and John Deere, cite concerns with safety and security issues for consumers as well as revealing trade secrets.
Other states considering similar legislation are Kansas, Minnesota, New York, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Wyoming.
Apple representative Steve Kester recently met with the bill’s sponsor, State Senator Lydia Brasch to discuss Apple’s position on the bill. According to Sen.
Brasch, Kester told her that Nebraska would be a “mecca for bad actors” if the bill passed, suggesting hackers would flood into the state, but that Apple would not oppose the bill if phones were specifically excluded from the legislation. Notably, no mention was made of excluding other Apple devices such as iPads and Macs, which the bill would also apply to. Apple declined to comment on the Nebraska bill or any of its lobbying efforts in other states, saying merely that “limiting repairs to authorized vendors is the only way it can guarantee that genuine parts are used and that the devices are fixed correctly.”
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