From Cell Phones to Tractors: The Right to Repair Movement Drives On — Regulatory Oversight Podcast
Podcast: The Briefing from the IP Law Blog - The Right to Repair and More New Exemptions
The Briefing from the IP Law Blog – DMCA: The Right to Repair and More new Exemptions
The lawsuit brought by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (“Auto Innovators”), a trade association representing automotive manufacturers and suppliers in the United States, seeking to block a 2024 right to repair law...more
The circular economy invites us to fundamentally reconsider our relationship with resources and products. By moving away from the outdated "take-make-dispose" model, companies are embracing a more sustainable approach that...more
On June 09, 2025, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied a motion to dismiss filed by a manufacturer of agricultural equipment (“Defendant”) in a right-to-repair action brought by the...more
On May 15, 2025, the Maine Joint Committee on Housing and Economic Development voted to allow the full Maine legislature to consider an amendment that would narrow the scope of the state's Right to Repair law. The law, which...more
The Connecticut legislature has passed a sweeping new consumer protection law addressing hidden fees, subscription practices, electronic privacy, price gouging, and right-to-repair requirements, among other things....more
On May 19, 2025, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed into law the Right to Repair Act, which will require original manufacturers of digital electronic products to make available certain parts, tools, and documentation for...more
In a significant development for farmers and the agricultural industry, amendments made last year to the Canadian Copyright Act have introduced new exemptions related to the right to repair and digital interoperability. These...more
In this episode of Regulatory Oversight, Stephen Piepgrass is joined by colleagues Brad Weber and Christy Matelis from the firm's Antitrust Practice Group to explore the evolving landscape of right-to-repair laws across the...more
On January 15, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Minnesota, and Illinois filed a lawsuit against Deere & Company (Deere). The complaint, which Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona have since joined, accuses Deere of creating...more
Le 22 janvier 2025, le gouvernement du Québec a publié un projet de règlement visant à modifier le Règlement d’application de la Loi sur la protection du consommateur existant. Selon les commentaires du gouvernement du Québec...more
On January 22, 2025, the Government of Quebec published a draft Regulation to amend Quebec’s existing Regulation respecting the application of the Consumer Protection Act. According to comments from the Government of Quebec...more
On Friday, January 31, 2025, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (“Auto Innovators”), a trade association representing manufacturers in the auto industry, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Maine seeking to enjoin...more
In the days leading up to President Trump’s inauguration, the Biden FTC rushed to initiate major lawsuits and to tie a bow on various antitrust policy efforts. In a series of dissenting statements, the minority Republican...more
Last week, the FTC and the Illinois and Minnesota Attorneys General brought suit against Deere & Company (Deere) challenging allegedly unfair equipment repair restrictions, which they claim resulted in higher equipment repair...more
Yesterday the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a 65-page report detailing what it views as its accomplishments over the last four years. In a press release summarizing the report, the FTC touts the following...more
OEMs may finally get some clarity in the next couple of months about their obligations under Massachusetts and Maine right to repair laws requiring them to provide owners and independent repair facilities access to mechanical...more
In many cases, the answer is yes, but following a recently-adopted exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), owners of certain retail-level machines are no longer forced to hire OEM-certified technicians to...more
A new exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows McDonald’s employees, franchise owners, and others to fix McDonald’s often out-of-order ice cream machines. Prior to this exemption, most McDonald’s ice...more
Interest in the “right-to-repair” movement continues to grow, as a number of states propose new legislation in this realm for consumer electronics, with five states successfully enacting such laws. But these laws are not...more
The Automotive Right to Repair Working Group convened by the Maine Attorney General will review proposed legislation that would substantially amend provisions of the Maine Right to Repair Law concerning access to mechanical...more
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2025 includes a mandate that contractors furnish information and documentation to enable the military to modify and repair equipment and systems. Not surprisingly, industry is...more
The Maine Attorney General’s Office recently announced that it has convened an 11-person working group of industry stakeholders to develop recommendations for legislation to establish an entity with rulemaking and enforcement...more
Now it’s in force: the EU Directive on a right to repair. It is now up to the Member States to transform the fully harmonized provisions into national law within 24 months. From 31 July 2026 at the latest, manufacturers and...more
The FTC’s Warning Letters - Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent eight companies warning letters regarding their warranty practices, alerting them that certain restrictive warranty language may violate...more
To help organizations stay on top of the main developments in European digital compliance, Morrison Foerster’s European Digital Regulatory Compliance team reports on some of the main topical digital regulatory and compliance...more