Are you ready for Right-to-Repair?

Are you ready for Right-to-Repair?

The right-to-repair (R2R) movement is gaining momentum... What started with consumer electronics has now reached the “farm equipment” industry (i.e. heavy equipment, agriculture, and construction industries), with legislation being passed or proposed across the U.S. and Europe that directly impacts how OEMs support repairability.

For manufacturers this requires a shift in how repair support content must be created, maintained, and distributed to ensure compliance. The days of emailing PDFs or uploading file dumps to your website are numbered. To meet both regulatory and customer expectations, OEMs need a flexible and modern approach to distributing repair information and ensuring equipment owners and independent repair shops can buy the correct replacement parts directly from the OEM.

The Global Legislative Landscape as of May 2025

In the U.S., several states have already enacted or have active proposed laws that require manufacturers to provide access to parts, tools, and documentation:

• Colorado (Enacted): Colorado law covers consumer electronics, agricultural equipment and powered wheelchairs and bans practices like “parts pairing” (i.e. the practice of locking parts to individual devices or equipment with software, preventing repairs with non-factory parts).
• Massachusetts (Enacted): Massachusetts law covers motor vehicles, affording independent repair shops the same access to diagnostic and repair information, as well as tools and telematics data, as dealerships.
• Minnesota (MN HF970 - Active): Aims to expand right-to-repair coverage already enacted for electronic equipment to farm equipment.
• Indiana (IN HB10160 – Active): Aims to introduce right-to-repair and service part coverage for electronic device and agriculture equipment.
• Illinois (HB 1909 - Active): Proposed bill that mandates repair support for farm equipment, with language broad enough to influence adjacent markets.

In the European Union, there is also growing momentum to cover agriculture and construction equipment in right-to-repair rules and regulations as part of “EcoDesign” efforts to extend the life of products.

While some right-to-repair laws have been enacted, most proposed legislation - especially those targeting agricultural and industrial sectors - still face significant hurdles in committee. Opposition often stems from legitimate concerns about training, safety, and liability - especially when non-certified technicians or independent repair shops are given the same access to technical data and tools as authorized providers. Still, the broader movement continues to gain ground. Mounting economic pressures on equipment owners - including tariffs, high interest rates, and rising maintenance costs - are intensifying the demand for extended equipment lifecycles and fair, transparent access to service parts and repairs. The market dynamics are likely to accelerate legislative and industry shifts in favor of better repair access.

Why PDFs and File Lists Won’t Cut It

Complying with these laws isn't just about checking a box. It's about ensuring equipment owners – and independent third-party technicians - can reliably find, understand, and act on repair information. Traditional methods like PDFs and static file repositories may seem sufficient on the surface, but they introduce risks:

• PDFs become outdated quickly and are nearly impossible to retract or update once distributed.
• File lists are disorganized, not searchable, and create confusion about which file is relevant to a specific model or serial number.
• Emailing documents leads to version control issues and legal risk if information is outdated.

In short, using outdated file-sharing methods as your compliance strategy is like building on quicksand. As regulations evolve and expectations rise, manufacturers need dynamic, structured, and centralized systems to avoid turning compliance into a costly, ongoing headache.

A Better Way: Digital Repair Enablement

OEMs who lean into this moment and prepare for it early have an opportunity to do more than meet regulatory requirements as well - they can strengthen their aftermarket business by:

• Centralizing content in a structured, searchable format
• Tracking what content is accessed most, by whom, and for which machines
• Enabling third-party technicians without losing control of their brand or technical content

Modern support tools reduce friction, increase parts sales, and build brand loyalty. They can also give OEMs visibility into what information is being used for repair and by whom - even when it’s not by a dealer.

So – Will you be ready when the movement gains momentum?

The right-to-repair movement is here to stay. Whether the catalyst is a new state law, customer demand, or looming compliance risk, the question isn’t if you’ll need to modernize your repair content and parts sales strategy - it’s when.

Start by asking:

• Can a technician easily find what they need for any model, in any language, from any location?
• Can a fleet owner or third-party mechanic identify and buy the right part directly from a parts catalog?
• Can you quickly update and push new service information when something changes?

If not, now is the time to act.