Arizona Right to Repair and Reliability Act
Arizona Right to Repair and Reliability Act
AN ACT
AMENDING TITLE 44, ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES, BY ADDING A NEW CHAPTER RELATING TO THE RIGHT TO REPAIR AND CONSUMER PRODUCT SERVICE LIFE GUARANTEES.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Title 44, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new chapter, to be designated as Chapter 42, to read:
CHAPTER 42
RIGHT TO REPAIR AND PRODUCT SERVICE LIFE ACT
ARTICLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS
44-4201. Definitions
In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
"AUTHORIZED REPAIR PROVIDER" means an individual or business that has an arrangement with the original equipment manufacturer for which the original equipment manufacturer provides the same diagnostic and repair information, service parts, and tools that the manufacturer provides its own repair departments.
"COMMERCIAL OR INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT" means equipment designed and sold for use in commercial or industrial settings, including but not limited to agricultural equipment, medical devices, and telecommunications infrastructure.
"CONSUMER" means an individual who purchases or leases a digital electronic product in this state primarily for personal, family, or household purposes.
"DIGITAL ELECTRONIC PRODUCT" means any product that depends for its functioning, in whole or in part, on digital electronics embedded in or attached to the product. This term includes consumer electronics, home appliances, computers, smartphones, tablets, vehicles, and commercial or industrial equipment.
"DOCUMENTED SERVICE LIFE" means the minimum period of time during which a manufacturer guarantees that service parts, tools, and documentation will be available for a product as published by the manufacturer in marketing materials, product specifications, warranties, or regulatory filings.
"EMBEDDED SOFTWARE" means any programmable instructions provided by the manufacturer and stored on read-only memory or firmware.
"FAIR AND REASONABLE TERMS" means terms that ensure service parts, tools, and documentation are offered at costs that are not discriminatory compared to what authorized repair providers pay, considering volume discounts, rebates, and other standard business practices.
"INDEPENDENT REPAIR PROVIDER" means an individual or business operating in this state that is not affiliated with an original equipment manufacturer or an authorized repair provider and that offers repair services for digital electronic products.
"MANUFACTURER" means any person engaged in the business of selling, leasing, or otherwise supplying new digital electronic products.
"ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER" means a company that manufactures or contracts for the manufacture of digital electronic products.
"OWNER" means a person who owns or leases a digital electronic product.
"SERVICE PARTS" means any replacement part, either new or used, made available by the manufacturer for purposes of maintenance or repair.
"SERVICE PART OBSOLESCENCE" means the manufacturer's discontinuation of service parts before the expiration of the documented service life.
"TOOLS" means any software program, hardware implement, or other apparatus used for diagnosis, maintenance, or repair, including software or other mechanisms that provision, program, or pair a new part, calibrate functionality, or perform any other function required to bring the product back to fully functional condition.
"TRADE SECRET" has the same meaning as in section 44-401.
ARTICLE 2. RIGHT TO REPAIR
44-4202. Requirements for manufacturers
A. For digital electronic products sold or used in this state, for the documented service life of the product or for seven years from the date of last manufacture, whichever is longer, the manufacturer shall make available to owners and independent repair providers, on fair and reasonable terms, the documentation, parts, and tools required for the diagnosis, maintenance, or repair of such products.
B. The documentation, parts, and tools required by subsection A shall include:
Manuals, diagrams, reporting output, service code descriptions, and schematics;
Software updates, including firmware, and any special tools needed to install them;
Any updates to documentation, parts, and tools;
Service parts, either new or used, provided such used parts are clearly identified as such and meet reasonable quality standards.
C. A manufacturer that sells service parts to an authorized repair provider shall sell such parts to independent repair providers and owners on fair and reasonable terms.
D. A manufacturer that makes documentation available to an authorized repair provider in a machine-readable format shall make that documentation available to independent repair providers and owners in the same format.
E. Manufacturers may not:
Use parts pairing, serial number matching, or other technical measures that prevent repair or replacement of components with new or used service parts from a source other than the manufacturer;
Design products in a manner that renders them inoperable after replacement of a component with a new or used service part from a source other than the manufacturer;
Require authorized or independent repair providers to purchase service parts in bundles containing more parts than necessary for a specific repair.
44-4203. Exceptions
A. This article does not require a manufacturer to divulge a trade secret.
B. This article does not apply to:
Products sold primarily for public safety or national security purposes, as defined by federal regulation;
Manufacturers that had fewer than twenty-five employees and less than ten million dollars in annual revenue during the previous calendar year;
Medical devices as defined by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that require federal premarket approval or clearance.
C. Nothing in this article shall be construed to require a manufacturer to provide documentation, parts, or tools that would enable the modification of a product to violate copyright law, circumvent technological protection measures in violation of 17 United States Code sections 1201 through 1205, or violate any other federal or state law.
44-4204. Enforcement
A. A violation of this article constitutes an unlawful practice under section 44-1522.
B. In addition to any other remedy, a person injured by a violation of this article may bring an action to:
Enjoin further violations;
Recover actual damages or two thousand five hundred dollars per violation, whichever is greater;
Recover reasonable attorney fees and costs.
C. The attorney general may bring an action to enforce this article and may recover a civil penalty of up to ten thousand dollars per violation.
ARTICLE 3. SERVICE LIFE GUARANTEES
44-4205. Published service life requirements
A. Any manufacturer that publishes a guaranteed minimum service life for a digital electronic product, either in marketing materials, product specifications, warranties, regulatory filings, or other public communications, shall be required to make service parts, tools, and documentation available for that product for the entirety of the published service life period.
B. The service life guarantee period begins on the date of the product's first retail sale to a consumer and continues for the duration specified by the manufacturer.
C. If a manufacturer publishes different service life periods for different components of a product, the manufacturer must make service parts available for each component according to its specified service life.
44-4206. Remedies for service part obsolescence
A. If a manufacturer discontinues service parts before the expiration of the documented service life, the manufacturer shall:
Notify the department of its intent to discontinue service parts at least one hundred eighty days before discontinuation;
Provide owners and independent repair providers with the option to purchase remaining inventory of service parts at fair and reasonable terms;
Provide, for a period of two years after discontinuation, documentation enabling the fabrication or sourcing of equivalent service parts by third parties, unless such documentation contains bona fide trade secrets;
Make available, for the remainder of the documented service life, any proprietary tools needed to install or configure replacement service parts.
B. If a manufacturer fails to comply with subsection A, and a product becomes inoperable due to the unavailability of a discontinued service part before the expiration of the documented service life, the consumer shall be entitled to:
A refund of the original purchase price, prorated based on the remaining documented service life; or
A replacement product of comparable functionality and value.
C. The remedies in subsection B shall be available for five years after the service part is discontinued.
44-4207. Registration of service life guarantees
A. The attorney general shall establish and maintain a publicly accessible online registry of digital electronic products with documented service life guarantees.
B. Manufacturers shall register products with documented service life guarantees within thirty days of first offering such products for sale in this state.
C. The registry shall include:
The product name and model number;
The documented service life period;
The date the service life guarantee begins;
The date service parts, tools, and documentation will no longer be available;
Contact information for obtaining service parts, tools, and documentation.
D. Failure to register a product with a documented service life guarantee constitutes an unlawful practice under section 44-1522.
44-4208. Deceptive practice
It is a deceptive practice under section 44-1522 for a manufacturer to:
Advertise or promote a service life guarantee that the manufacturer does not intend to honor;
Fail to disclose material limitations or conditions of a service life guarantee;
Design products in a manner that systematically fails before the expiration of the documented service life.
ARTICLE 4. IMPLEMENTATION
44-4209. Rules
The attorney general shall adopt rules necessary to implement this chapter, including rules establishing:
Standards for determining "fair and reasonable terms" for different categories of products;
Procedures for registration of service life guarantees;
Standards for documenting service life guarantees;
Procedures for handling trade secret protections.
44-4210. Preemption
This chapter does not preempt any local ordinance that provides greater rights to repair than those provided in this chapter.
44-4211. Severability
If any provision of this chapter or its application is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications that can be given effect without the invalid provision.
Section 2. Section 44-1522, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to include violations of Title 44, Chapter 42 as unlawful practices under the Consumer Fraud Act.
Section 3. Effective Date
This act is effective from and after January 1, 20XX.
