Your Right to Repair, State by State in 2026

As of October 2026, eight US states have right-to-repair laws for consumer electronics in effect. The map changed twice this year alone: Connecticut's electronics law took effect on July 1, and Texas's took effect on September 1, making Texas the first Republican-led state to pass one. Together, the eight states cover more than a third of the US population, which means manufacturers increasingly design their repair programs around these rules by default. What follows is a factual rundown of where things stand. It is not legal advice.

The eight states with electronics repair laws

New York moved first. Its Digital Fair Repair Act, signed in late 2022, took effect on December 28, 2023, and requires manufacturers to make parts, tools, and documentation available for digital electronic equipment. California (SB 244) and Minnesota followed with laws effective July 1, 2024. Oregon's SB 1596 took effect January 1, 2025, and Colorado's HB24-1121 and Washington's law both took effect January 1, 2026. Connecticut's Public Act 25-44 took effect July 1, 2026, and Texas HB 2963 took effect September 1, 2026. Bills have been introduced in all 50 states at some point, according to iFixit, and advocates tracked dozens of active bills across more than 20 states during 2026.

The map matters less than the fine print: every state law covers different products, and most of them exclude the devices you might expect.

What the laws actually require

The core idea is the same everywhere: manufacturers must make the parts, tools, service documentation, and diagnostic software they give their own authorized technicians available to device owners and independent repair shops, on fair terms. But the details vary enough to matter. Texas, the newest law, covers consumer electronics with a wholesale price above $50, a threshold measured at wholesale rather than retail. It applies only to equipment first made available for sale in Texas on or after September 1, 2026, and gives manufacturers up to one year after first sale to make the required resources available, so repair access phases in gradually. Texas also gives manufacturers more safeguards than earlier laws: as an alternative to supplying parts and documentation, a manufacturer can reimburse the owner or provide an equivalent or better replacement device, though that alternative applies only to original purchasers, not secondhand buyers. And unlike Oregon, Colorado, and Washington, Texas does not ban parts pairing.

Whether companies actually comply is a separate question. The Repair Association, a trade group for independent repair shops, has been collecting reports from its members on products they cannot fix and the barriers they hit, expecting to find plenty of gaps. Enforcement sits with state attorneys general, and the laws differ in small but telling ways: New York's law covers video game consoles, for instance, while most other states explicitly exempt them, a carve-out that mattered enough for iFixit to announce an Xbox parts partnership as a notable exception.

Parts pairing: the fight inside the fight

Parts pairing is the practice of using software to tie a component to a specific device, so a replacement screen or battery will not fully work unless the manufacturer authorizes it through proprietary tools. Apple, for example, has long required its own pairing process for iPhone screens. Three states now ban the practice outright: Oregon, Colorado, and Washington. Oregon's ban is the broadest, applying retroactively to most devices going back to 2015, while Washington's applies to devices made after January 1, 2025. Apple lobbied against the bans and lost, and has since begun opening its pairing system, including allowing customers to pair used Apple parts with certain iPhone models. Because parts pairing is where software locks meet physical repair, expect it to be the most contested issue in every future state bill.

Tractors, wheelchairs, cars, and what is still pending

Electronics are only part of the story. Colorado passed the first US law covering agricultural equipment (HB23-1011, effective January 1, 2024) and the first covering powered wheelchairs; Oregon, Nevada, and Washington have wheelchair repair laws too, and a federal Wheelchair Right to Repair Act was introduced in August 2025. Cars, however, are deliberately excluded from nearly every electronics law. Colorado's sweeping electronics measure lists motor vehicles alongside aircraft and marine vessels in its exemptions. Automotive repair is governed separately: Massachusetts and Maine have their own automotive right-to-repair frameworks, and Maine updated its law in April 2026 through its Automotive Right to Repair Working Group process. At the federal level, nothing has passed. The Fair Repair Act of 2026 and the REPAIR Act for vehicle repair data are both pending in the 119th Congress, and the Copyright Office's next round of DMCA Section 1201 repair exemptions is expected around June 2026. Until then, your rights depend on your state, your device, and the fine print.

References

U.S. PIRG Education Fund, The State of Right to Repair (2025). JD Supra, Navigating the Right to Repair Landscape in 2026. Resource Recycling, coverage of Texas HB 2963. H2 Compliance, Texas Right to Repair and state effective dates. Market Business News, Texas repair law analysis. USA Today, new Texas laws effective September 1, 2026. PC Gamer, Texas right-to-repair bill coverage. The Autowire, right-to-repair car laws by state 2026. WebProNews, America's Repair Rebellion. PlainRegWatch, Right to Repair Laws in the US: State-by-State Guide 2026.