Colorado Bans

TapTechNews, May 29th, after Oregon introduced a similar ban in March this year, Colorado has also included the parts pairing practice in the right to repair legislation and banned it.

Parts pairing means digitally pairing the serial number of a component (such as a screen) with the serial number of the iPhone itself, that is, even if a user replaces one original Apple component with another, due to the unmatched pairing, the repair cannot be completely successful, which can prevent the use of disassembled parts for repair. For example, on the iPhone 13, replacing the screen will result in the inability to use FaceID. Due to the need to use parts approved by Apple, many repairs have become very expensive.

TapTechNews noted that Oregon is the first state in the US to officially legislate to ban parts pairing, and the decree will take effect on smartphones from January 2025. The public welfare organization PIRG reported that Colorado has now taken the same measures.

Colorado residents now have the broadest repair rights in the US. This new law builds on Colorado's previous laws protecting the repair rights of agricultural equipment and electric wheelchairs.

Colorado is also the second state to include restrictions on companies' use of software locks to limit repairs (that is, parts pairing) in its electronics legislation. Governor Jared Polis said that this law will save money and reduce waste. Protecting our right to repair our own damaged equipment will save money, support small businesses and reduce electronic waste. Today, we are working hard to protect the repair rights of Colorado residents to ensure that manufacturers cannot force Colorado residents to pay high repair costs.

Although Apple has softened its stance on parts pairing by providing a method of requiring the company to approve used parts when repairing devices, both Oregon and Colorado have gone further and completely banned this practice. 9to5mac said that other states may follow their lead, and Apple and other companies may eventually have to give up parts pairing.

For many years, Apple has been vigorously lobbying against the right to repair legislation, spending money to resist at both the state and federal levels, trying to completely block the legislation or weaken its effectiveness as much as possible. After the company launched the Self-Repair Program in 2021, its stance made a 180-degree turn. At the same time, the company stopped opposing the right to repair legislation and began to actively support them.