Documents Reveal Apple’s Struggle to Define Its Stance on Right to Repair
‘Our strategy around all of this is unclear’
Internal emails between Apple employees reveal the company struggling to defend its position on Right to Repair, a movement that encourages people to fix their own devices. Ahead of yesterday’s Congressional antitrust hearing, which saw testimonies from CEOs Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Sundar Pichai, Apple submitted a trove of emails to the House Judiciary Committee that show spokespersons carefully crafting its “repair strategy.”
The emails were first reported on Thursday by iFixit, a DIY website that publishes guides to fixing gadgets and sells repair equipment. “These internal discussions reveal that what looks like Apple’s united front against Right to Repair is really an internal debate, rife with uncertainty,” wrote iFixit co-founder Kyle Weins.
Apple has long opposed Right to Repair, claiming that “unauthorized” repairs are a threat to security, its intellectual property, and consumer safety. Its crusade against DIY was interrogated by the New York Times editorial board in April 2019. Citing Apple’s high repair costs and various attempts to subvert third-party access to manuals, tools, and diagnostics, the Times concluded that Apple’s tactics were “unfair to consumers who…
