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Committee advances right-to-repair bill with carve-outs for medical devices and local dealers
Summary
The Senate Community and Regional Affairs Committee adopted three amendments to SB111 (digital product repair) — exempting medical devices, banning parts pairing, and protecting power-sports and farm-equipment dealers from wholesale-pricing requirements — and moved the bill from committee as amended.
The Senate Community and Regional Affairs Committee on April 8 advanced Senate Bill 111, a right-to-repair measure that aims to expand consumer and independent repair options for goods containing digital products. Sponsor Senator Dunbar introduced the bill and the committee adopted three amendments before moving the bill from committee as amended.
Senator Dunbar said the bill is intended to "allow Alaskans to fix their own items that have digital products in them," and acknowledged industry feedback had shaped the amendments.
Amendment n.2 (labeled in the record as N.2) adds a broad exemption for medical devices. Halen Benken, staff to Senator Dunbar, told the committee the exemption responds to medical-device manufacturers and FDA-regulated complexity: "we don't see a gain in providing a right to repair for these devices," Benken said, citing safety and regulatory concerns.
Amendment n.5 prohibits parts-pairing practices in which manufacturers bind specific parts to individual devices so that genuine replacement parts will not work when installed by third parties. Benken framed parts pairing with a smartphone example: swapping identical screens between two phones could disable features because a screen has been locked to a motherboard; the amendment bans that practice to preserve independent repairability.
Amendment n.6 extends protections already present for farm-equipment dealers to dealers and authorized service providers of power-sports equipment (ATVs, personal watercraft, snow machines). The provision allows those dealers to set reasonable terms and prices rather than being forced to supply parts at mandated wholesale prices, a concession meant to address concerns raised by Alaskan dealers.
Each amendment was moved by Senator Dunbar and adopted without recorded objection; the committee then approved a motion to move SB111 (version 34-LS-0560 backslash November) from committee as amended, with individual recommendations and accompanying fiscal notes. The committee authorized legislative legal services to make conforming changes.
Sponsor remarks and committee discussion emphasized balancing repair access for consumers with practical concerns raised by local dealers and regulated medical equipment. The bill will be referred to its next committee as part of the normal legislative process.
