[Themaintainers] Request for Data for FTC's Nixing the Fix: A Workshop on Repair Restrictions

[lee vinsel]

Hey, folks!

I didn't want to make my initial email too long, but here's a research
project I've been thinking about: it seems that one important historical
question is about the rise and fall of local repair stores. The Ngram
pasted below suggests what you'd expect: that we see waves of repair around
new technologies, and then for a variety of reasons - including prices no
doubt - repairs recede. (Note: this is likely highly US/Euro centric -
David Edgerton, Lara Houston, Phil Scranton, Fabian Prieto-Nanez have found
very different trends in other places.) I believe that we do not have a
good historical picture of these trends yet, however. One thought I've had
is to use city directories to track #'s of repair shops. My first thought
was to use the collection at the Library of Congress, but some friends have
said this might be able to be done online (I can't remember - maybe it was
using ancestry.com).

I'd be happy to hear thoughts about this idea. But I'd also love to hear
about potential research projects others can dream up. Highly speculative
is fine!

Lee

[image: Screen Shot 2019-03-26 at 10.15.45 AM.png]

On Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 6:30 PM lee vinsel <lee at themaintainers.org> wrote:

> Hey, everybody.
>
> As some of you may have seen, the Federal Trade Commission is holding a
> workshop on repair restrictions titled "Nixing the Fix
> <https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/nixing-fix-workshop-repair-restrictions>."
> The FTC has articulated a series of questions related to this topic, which
> I've copied below, but may not even know what it is looking for.
>
> The good folks over at iFixit - which calls itself "a global community of
> people helping each other repair things" and has been an important force in
> the right-to-repair movement - have been leading the charge to pull data
> together.
>
> I wanted to write to see if anyone has existing data that might help. (To
> give one example, perhaps you've run some repair cafes and have kept data
> on the kinds of repairs individuals are seeking.) But this also seems like
> a germane moment to brainstorm some collective research efforts that might
> shed light on repair, corporate repair restrictions, and related topics.
>
> Please feel free to reply to the list with any thoughts, questions, ideas,
> etc. If you'd like to reach out to iFixit directly, you can drop a line to Brittany
> McCrigler, iFixit's Director of Education Services: brittany at ifixit.com
>
> Best,
>
> Lee
>
> *Nixing the Fix: A Workshop on Repair Restrictions* will focus on how
> manufacturers may limit repairs by consumers and repair shops and whether
> those limitations affect consumer protection, including consumers’ rights
> under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. The workshop will discuss some of the
> issues that arise when a manufacturer restricts or makes it impossible for
> a consumer or an independent repair shop to make product repairs and
> whether such restrictions undercut the Warranty Act’s protections.
>
> Questions from the FTC:
>
> The prevalence of the certain types of repair restrictions
>
> The effect of repair restrictions on the repair market in the United
> States, and the impact that manufacturers’ repair restrictions have on
> small and local businesses
>
> The effect repair restrictions have on prices for repairing goods,
> accessibility and timeliness of repairs, and the quality of repair
>
> The effect of repair restrictions on consumers’ ability to repair
> warrantied products or to have the products repaired by independent repair
> shops
>
> The relationship between repair restrictions and the sale of extended
> warranties by manufacturers
>
> Manufacturers’ justifications for repair restrictions and the factual
> basis for such justifications
>
> The risks posed by repairs made by consumers or independent repair shops
>
> The liability faced by manufacturers when consumers or independent repair
> workers are injured while repairing a product
>
> The liability faced by manufacturers when consumers are injured after
> using or coming into contact with a product that has been repaired
> improperly by a consumer or independent repair shop
>
> Whether consumers understand the existence and the effects of repair
> restrictions
>
>
> --
> Co-Founder
> The Maintainers
>


-- 
Co-Founder
The Maintainers
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