Learn about how repair restrictions harmed communities’ responses to the coronavirus pandemic and what we can do to build more open and resilient repair markets with Open Markets Institute authors Claire Kelloway and Daniel Hanley, and the director of U.S. PIRG’s campaign for Right to Repair, Nathan Proctor.

From barriers to repairing lifesaving ventilators to products stuck in Apple’s repair purgatory, the systemic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic made the dangers and fragility of monopolized repair markets all the more clear.

Together, the Open Markets Institute and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) explore this issue, discuss what state legislators and federal regulators can do to build more open and resilient repair markets, and review Open Markets’ report, “Fixing America: Breaking Manufacturers’ Aftermarket Monopoly and Restoring Consumers’ Right to Repair.”

Special Guests:

• Nathan Proctor, Director of the Right to Repair Campaign, U.S. PIRG

• Claire Kelloway, Reporter, Open Markets Institute

• Daniel Hanley, Policy Analyst, Open Markets Institute

Relevant Readings

• Open Markets report - Fixing America: Breaking Manufacturers’ Aftermarket Monopoly and Restoring Consumers’ Right to Repair

• U.S. PIRG release - California becomes 20th state in 2019 to consider Right to Repair bill

• Vice article - Appliance Companies Are Lobbying to Protect Their DRM-Fueled Repair Monopolies

• Bloomberg piece - Don’t Drop Your iPhone Now: Repairing It Is a Problem