Consumers, small and large businesses, public schools, hospitals, banks, and manufacturers all need reasonable assurance that those they trust to repair their connected products will do so safely, securely, and correctly. Proposals that require original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to provide unaffiliated repair firms with access to proprietary schematics and repair, diagnostic, and security tools create major risks to consumer safety and privacy and the security of connected infrastructure.
TechNet supports the following principles:
OEMs and authorized repair firms are uniquely qualified to ensure the secure and safe repair of electronic products. These firms use OEM-trained technicians and original parts that are backed by the OEMs and their partners with warranties, legally enforceable contracts, quality assurance requirements, and other mechanisms that provide strong protections for consumers.
Requiring manufacturers to disclose diagnostic tools, source code, and software developed by the manufacturer at significant cost and to provide access to tightly controlled supply chains to unaffiliated, unvetted third parties would place proprietary corporate information and sensitive customer data in the hands of unknown actors, creating a new set of intellectual property rights concerns and cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
Private rights of action and other tools to encourage litigation must be avoided.
Legislation should avoid a patchwork of inconsistent policies that will stifle innovation and/or are technically or operationally infeasible.
