Oregon Right to Repair Law: Covered Devices, Parts Pairing, and Warranties

Oregon’s right to repair law, Senate Bill 1596, took effect on January 1, 2025, and gives you the right to fix your own electronics or take them to any independent shop you choose. Manufacturers must hand over the same parts, tools, and documentation they give their authorized service centers, and they can no longer use software locks to reject compatible replacement components. Oregon is the first state in the country to ban that software-lock practice, which is why repair advocates consider its law the strongest on the books.

Which Devices Are Covered

The law doesn’t list specific gadgets. It covers “consumer electronic equipment,” defined by what the product does: anything that runs on digital electronics, is tangible personal property, and is generally used for personal, family, or household purposes.¹ That functional definition sweeps in a wide range of everyday devices:

Desktops, laptops, and tablets of any brand or operating system.
Smartphones, a primary focus of the law given how often cracked screens and worn batteries push phones out of service.
Home appliances with digital controls, such as refrigerators, washing machines, and dryers.
Other household electronics that fit the functional definition, including game consoles, smart speakers, and wearables.

It applies whether you bought the device in a store or online, as long as the product was sold at retail for consumer use.²

Manufacture-Date Cutoffs

The law reaches back to cover products already in Oregon homes, but not all of them. For most consumer electronics and appliances, the law covers items manufactured after July 1, 2015. For smartphones, the cutoff is tighter: models manufactured on or after July 1, 2021.² Check your device settings or the label near the serial number to confirm the manufacture date before you ask a shop or manufacturer for parts.

What the Law Does Not Reach

Several categories sit outside SB 1596, mostly because they’re handled through separate federal or industry frameworks:

Motor vehicles. Cars, trucks, and motorcycles are excluded; automotive repair access runs through a separate national agreement.
Medical devices, which stay under federal FDA oversight.
Agricultural equipment such as tractors and combines.
Commercial HVAC systems.
Heavy industrial machinery used in large-scale manufacturing.

Equipment that was never sold at retail for consumer use is also outside the law, which keeps most commercial and enterprise gear out of scope regardless of category.

What Manufacturers Have to Give You

The central rule is simple: manufacturers must provide independent repair shops and individual owners the same repair resources they provide their own authorized service centers.¹ That covers:

Replacement parts such as batteries, screens, and charging ports.
Service manuals, wiring diagrams, troubleshooting guides, and technical bulletins.
Diagnostic tools and software used to identify failures and verify repairs.
Firmware and software updates on the same terms authorized technicians receive them.

The law also requires that the pricing and terms be equivalent to the most favorable deal offered to authorized providers.¹ A local repair shop should pay roughly what an authorized dealer pays for the same replacement screen. Documentation and software must also be available in formats that don’t require proprietary manufacturer hardware to open.

The Parts Pairing Ban

Parts pairing is the practice of using software to check the serial number of a component after installation and then disabling features, throwing error messages, or refusing to work if the part didn’t come through official channels. Replace a phone screen with an identical aftermarket part, and the device might refuse to enable the touchscreen or display a permanent warning. The repair physically works; the software makes it useless.

Oregon’s law prohibits that practice outright.² A replacement component cannot be required to authenticate with the manufacturer’s servers to function. That matters because other state repair laws stop at requiring parts and manuals; if the device then rejects the part through software, the access is hollow. Oregon closed that loophole, and in doing so strengthened the secondary market for salvaged components. A working screen pulled from one broken phone can go into another compatible unit without being bricked.

Will Independent Repairs Void Your Warranty?

No, not automatically. Federal law has protected you on this point for decades. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act prohibits manufacturers from conditioning a warranty on the use of a specific branded part or authorized service, unless they can prove to the Federal Trade Commission that the product only works properly with that specific part or service.³

In practice, a manufacturer cannot refuse a warranty claim simply because you replaced a cracked screen at an independent shop or installed a third-party battery. To deny coverage, they would need to show that the specific aftermarket part or repair caused the defect you’re now claiming. That federal protection applies in every state and works alongside Oregon’s law. The state law makes the parts and tools available; the federal law prevents the manufacturer from punishing you for using them.

How to Report a Manufacturer That Won’t Comply

The Oregon Attorney General enforces SB 1596. If a manufacturer refuses to provide the required parts, tools, or documentation, the AG’s office can investigate and bring legal action. Violators face civil penalties of up to $1,000 per day per violation, and the AG can seek court orders forcing compliance.²

The law does not let individual consumers sue manufacturers directly. Enforcement runs through the state complaint process. You can file through the Oregon Department of Justice’s online portal at justice.oregon.gov/consumercomplaints or call the consumer protection hotline at 1-877-877-9392.⁴

Because the AG’s office decides which cases to pursue, patterns tend to carry more weight than isolated complaints. Document what happened: save screenshots of denied parts orders, photos of parts-pairing error messages, and any written responses from the manufacturer refusing to provide documentation. A detailed complaint gives the office something to act on.

Protect Your Data Before You Hand the Device Over

SB 1596 governs what manufacturers must provide. It does not regulate how a repair shop handles your personal information, so that part is on you. A few steps before you drop off a phone or laptop can prevent a privacy problem later:

Back up photos, documents, and passwords to a secure location, then delete sensitive files or sign out of accounts you don’t need active during the repair.
Turn on full-disk encryption. If your data is encrypted, physical access to the drive doesn’t translate to readable access to your files.⁵
Install pending security updates before you hand the device over.
Ask the shop how they store devices overnight and whether the repair actually needs access to your accounts. Often it doesn’t.

The same precautions apply whether you use an authorized service center or an independent shop. The repair itself usually doesn’t require anyone to read your files, so there’s no reason to leave them exposed.

1
Oregon State Legislature. Senate Bill 1596 – Relating to a Right to Repair Consumer Electronic Equipment
2
Oregon State Legislature. SB 1596 – Relating to a Right to Repair Consumer Electronic Equipment
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 Section 2302
4
Oregon Department of Justice. Consumer Protection
5
National Institute of Standards and Technology. Securing Data and Devices