On October 5, 2026, a quiet but significant change hit every electronics shelf in Quebec. Under the province’s planned obsolescence law, new cellphones, laptops, desktop computers, tablets and game consoles now come with a mandatory three-year warranty of good working order, according to a summary by law firm Gowling WLG. Televisions get four years. Fridges and heat pumps get six. Merchants can’t sell their way out of it, and they have to post the warranty period next to the price.
That is the right to repair movement in its most concrete form: a law that changes what happens when your phone dies in year two. For most of the smartphone era, the answer was simple and expensive. You paid the manufacturer’s price, went to an authorized shop, or bought a new device. Independent repairers were locked out by glued batteries, unavailable parts and software that refused to recognize a replacement screen.
Over the past five years, that has started to shift, in Brussels, in a growing list of U.S. state capitals, in Ottawa and in Quebec City. This guide explains what the movement wants, what has actually become law, and how it should change the way you shop for your next phone or laptop.
What “right to repair” actually means
The phrase covers a bundle of demands rather than a single rule. Advocates generally want four things:
- Parts: genuine replacement components sold to anyone, at fair prices, for a reasonable number of years.
- Information: repair manuals, schematics and diagnostic software available to independent shops and owners, not just authorized dealers.
- Tools: the specialized drivers, jigs and software keys needed to finish a repair.
- No digital locks against repair: an end to “parts pairing,” where a device’s software flags or disables a replacement component because it wasn’t installed through the manufacturer’s system.
The movement started with farmers and car owners, and some of its biggest wins still come from there. In July 2026, iFixit reported that John Deere had settled an antitrust case brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and five states over repair access. But consumer electronics is where most Canadians feel it.
Europe sets the pace
The European Union has done more than any other jurisdiction, mostly by regulating product design rather than just repair access.
Phones and tablets built to last
Since June 20, 2025, smartphones and tablets sold in the EU have had to meet new ecodesign rules. The European Commission says manufacturers must keep key spare parts available for at least seven years after a model leaves the market, deliver them within five to 10 working days, and provide operating system updates for at least five years after the last unit is sold. Batteries must survive at least 800 charge cycles while keeping 80 per cent of their capacity. A new label grades each device from A to E for repairability.
The Right to Repair Directive
The broader Right to Repair Directive (EU) 2024/1799 had a transposition deadline of July 31, 2026, meaning member states were required to write it into national law by then. It obliges manufacturers to repair certain products, including smartphones, within a reasonable time and for a reasonable price, adds a 12-month extension to the legal guarantee when a consumer chooses repair over replacement, and bans contract terms, hardware or software techniques that unnecessarily obstruct repair. A pan-EU platform to find repairers is due in 2027.
Replaceable batteries are coming back
The next deadline is EU Battery Regulation 2023/1542, which requires user-replaceable batteries in many portable devices from 2027. iFixit noted in July 2026 that Nintendo and Amazon were already shipping EU models of the Switch 2 and Kindle with batteries owners can swap. Those design changes tend to leak into other markets, including ours, because it’s cheaper to build one version of a product than two.
The American patchwork
The United States has no federal right to repair law for electronics, but the states have been busy. The U.S. Public Interest Research Group calculated that by January 2026 about a quarter of Americans lived in a state with some right to repair protection, rising to at least 35.5 per cent by fall 2026 once Connecticut and Texas rules took effect.
| State | Key date | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| New York | Devices first sold after July 1, 2023 | First state electronics law, but amended before signing to allow sales of assemblies instead of individual parts |
| California | In effect July 1, 2024 | Parts, tools and manuals for three years on products $50 to $99.99, seven years at $100 and up |
| Minnesota | In effect July 1, 2024 | Parts, tools and documentation on fair terms for equipment sold after July 1, 2021 |
| Oregon | Parts pairing ban for devices made after Jan. 1, 2025 | First state to ban parts pairing |
New York’s law is a cautionary tale. Governor Kathy Hochul signed it in December 2022 with last-minute amendments that, as PhoneArena reported, let manufacturers sell bundled assemblies rather than single components and exempted passwords and security codes. Advocates called it badly watered down.
California’s SB 244, signed in October 2023, went further on duration. Minnesota’s Digital Fair Repair Act is broad, though it excludes game consoles, cars, farm equipment and medical devices. Oregon, as Engadget reported when it was signed in March 2024, became the first state to bar manufacturers from using software to block or degrade independently installed parts.
Canada’s approach: copyright, competition and Quebec
Canada has moved on three fronts at once, and the federal pieces are easy to miss because they live inside laws most people never read.
Copyright: Bills C-244 and C-294
Until recently, breaking a digital lock on a device, even one you owned, could violate the Copyright Act. On November 7, 2024, two private members’ bills received royal assent and changed that. As Torys explains, Bill C-244 lets owners and third-party repairers circumvent technological protection measures for the sole purpose of diagnosing, maintaining or repairing a product. Bill C-294 allows circumvention to make a device or program interoperable with another.
Those are real wins, but limited ones. Writing for Dalhousie University, law professor Anthony Rosborough, a co-founder of the Canadian Repair Coalition, argued that further reforms are still needed in provincial consumer protection and federal competition law, and in rules requiring products to be designed for repair. The copyright changes make repair legal; they don’t make it easy.
Competition law: Bill C-59
The second front is the Competition Act. Amendments that took effect on June 20, 2024, explicitly recognize “means of diagnosis or repair” under the refusal-to-deal provisions. The Competition Tribunal can now order a supplier to make parts, tools or diagnostic information available on appropriate terms. Expanded private access, which lets affected businesses bring cases themselves, began on June 20, 2025. Ottawa also consulted on durability, repairability and interoperability in the summer of 2024.
Quebec’s Bill 29
Quebec has gone furthest, using consumer protection law. Bill 29 bans planned obsolescence techniques and was designed to come into force in stages. Since October 5, 2025, rules on availability of replacement parts, repair services and maintenance information have applied. According to Osler, those obligations include diagnostic software and updates, and repairs must be possible at a price that doesn’t discourage consumers. Penalties can reach five per cent of a company’s worldwide turnover. The new warranty of good working order arrived a year later, on October 5, 2026.
How repairable are today’s phones?
iFixit, the repair parts and guides company that has become the movement’s loudest voice, scores devices from 0 to 10 based on how easy they are to open, how much adhesive is used, whether the battery can be reached quickly, and whether the maker sells parts and publishes manuals. Its current smartphone scores look like this for recent models:
- Fairphone 6: 10 out of 10
- iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air: 7
- Google Pixel 10: 6
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and S25 Edge: 5
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Nothing Phone 3: 3
We find the Apple numbers the most telling. Not long ago, iPhones were the poster child for unrepairable design. A seven is not a perfect score, but it suggests that regulatory pressure plus the threat of a bad label can move even the most controlling manufacturers. iFixit itself cautions that its methodology changes over time, so treat the scores as indicators rather than lab measurements.
What this means when you buy a phone or laptop
Repairability is now something you can shop for. A few practical habits help:
- Check the score before you buy. Look up the iFixit score, and if you’re comparing a model also sold in Europe, check its EU repairability grade.
- Ask about the battery. Batteries are the part most likely to wear out. A phone where the battery is reachable without heat guns and solvent will cost far less to keep alive in year four.
- Look at software support. A repairable device is only useful as long as it gets security updates. Check how many years of updates the manufacturer promises.
- Know your warranty. If you live in Quebec, the three-year good working order warranty applies regardless of what the salesperson’s extended plan says. Elsewhere in Canada, provincial rules vary, so it’s worth checking with your provincial consumer protection office or a lawyer if a dispute arises.
- For laptops, check the RAM and storage. Soldered memory and drives can’t be upgraded or swapped when they fail. Some business laptops and repair-focused brands still use standard, replaceable parts.
The road from legal to practical
The right to repair has moved from a fringe cause to written law in less than a decade. Europe is regulating design itself. U.S. states are forcing parts and manuals onto the market, and a few are tackling parts pairing. Canada has cleared the legal underbrush with copyright and competition changes, while Quebec has shown what a province can do with consumer protection law.
The gap that remains, here and almost everywhere, is between being allowed to repair something and being able to do it affordably. That’s where the next fights will be: parts pricing, software locks and whether other provinces follow Quebec. Until then, the most effective lever most of us have is the one at the checkout. Buy the device that’s easier to fix, and the market will notice.
Sources and further reading
- Gowling WLG: New Quebec consumer protection regulation takes effect
- McCarthy Tétrault: Quebec releases final regulations on repair and replacement obligations
- Osler: What you need to know about Quebec’s Bill 29
- Torys: Circumvention of technological protection measures through repair exception
- Dalhousie University: Updates to Canada’s Copyright Act and the right to repair
- Baker McKenzie: Bill C-59 and Competition Act reform
- ISED: Right to repair consultation document
- European Commission: New EU rules for durable, repairable smartphones and tablets
- Lewis Silkin: What the Right to Repair Directive means for business
- iFixit: Kindle and Switch replaceable batteries show EU laws are working
- iFixit: John Deere settles with the FTC
- iFixit: Smartphone repairability scores
- U.S. PIRG: More than one-quarter of Americans covered by right to repair
- PhoneArena: New York passes the Digital Fair Repair Act
- GSMArena: California enacts Right to Repair Act
- Minnesota Attorney General: The right to repair in Minnesota
- Engadget: Oregon’s right to repair bill is now law
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