Right to Repair Digital Electronics Act.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
H 1
HOUSE BILL 938

Short Title: Right to Repair Digital Electronics Act. (Public)
Sponsors: Representatives Longest, Belk, T. Brown, and Pittman (Primary Sponsors).
For a complete list of sponsors, refer to the North Carolina General Assembly web site.
Referred to: Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
April 14, 2025
*H938-v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT ESTABLISHING FAIR REPAIR REQUIREMENTS FOR MANUFACTURERS OF 2
DIGITAL ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS. 3
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 4
SECTION 1. Chapter 75 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new Article 5
to read: 6
"Article 9. 7
"Fair Repair Requirements Act. 8
"§ 75-150. Definitions. 9
The following definitions apply in this Article: 10
(1) Authorized repair provider. – An oral or written arrangement for a definite or 11
indefinite period in which a manufacturer or distributor transfers to a separate 12
business organization or individual license to use a trade name, service mark, 13
or relative characteristic for the purposes of offering repair services under the 14
name of the manufacturer. 15
(2) Digital electronic product. – A part or machine containing a microprocessor 16
originally manufactured for distribution and sale in the United States. 17
(3) Documentation. – Manuals, diagrams, reporting output, or service code 18
descriptions provided to the authorized repair provider for the purposes o f 19
repair. 20
(4) Embedded software. – Programmable instructions provided on firmware 21
delivered with the digital electronic product for the purposes of product 22
operation, including all relevant patches and fixes made by the manufacturer 23
for this purpose, inclu ding, but not limited to , "basic internal operating 24
system," "internal operating system," "machine code," "assembly code," "root 25
code," and "microcode." 26
(5) Fair and reasonable terms. – An equitable price in light of relevant factors, 27
including all of the following: 28
a. The net cost to the authorized repair provider for similar parts obtained 29
from manufacturers, less any discounts, rebates, or other incentive 30
programs. 31
b. The cost to the manufacturer for preparing and distributing the parts 32
or product, excluding any research and development costs incurred in 33
designing and implementing, upgrading, or altering the product, but 34
General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 House Bill 938-First Edition
including amortized capital costs for the prepara tion and distribution 1
of the parts. 2
c. The price charged by other manufacturers for similar parts or products. 3
(6) Independent repair provider. – An individual or business operating in the State 4
that is not affiliated with a manufacturer or a manufacturer's authorized dealer 5
of a digital electronic product that is engaged in the diagnosis, service, 6
maintenance, or repair of a digital electronic product. A manufacturer 's 7
authorized dealer shall be considered an independent repair provider when the 8
dealer engages in the diagnosis, service, maintenance, or repair of a digital 9
electronic product that is not affiliated with the manufacturer. 10
(7) Manufacturer. – An individual or business who, in the ordinary course of its 11
business, is engaged in the business of selling or leasing new digital electronic 12
products to consumers or other end users and is engaged in the diagnosis, 13
service, maintenance, or repair of that product. 14
(8) Owner. – An individual or business who lawfully acquires a digital electronic 15
product purchased or used in the State. 16
(9) Remote diagnostics. – A remote data transfer function between a digital 17
electronic product and a provider of repair services, including for purposes of 18
diagnostics, settings controls, or location identification. 19
(10) Service parts. – Replacement parts, either new or used, made available by the 20
manufacturer to the authorized repair provider for the purposes of repair. 21
(11) Trade secret. – Anything tangible or intangible or electronically stored or kept 22
that constitutes, repre sents, evidences, or records intellectual property, 23
including secret or confidentially held designs, processes, procedures, 24
formulas, inventions or improvements or secrets of confidentially held 25
scientific, technical, merchandising, production, financial, business or 26
management information, or anything within the definition of 18 U.S.C. § 27
1839(3). 28
"§ 75-151. Fair repair requirements. 29
(a) Manufacturers of digital electronic products sold or used in this State are required to 30
do all of the following: 31
(1) Make available to independent repair facilities or owners of products 32
manufactured by the manufacturer diagnostic and repair information, 33
including repair technical updates, diagnostic software, service access 34
passwords, updates and corrections to firmware , and related documentation, 35
free of charge and in the same manner the manufacturer makes available to its 36
authorized repair providers. 37
(2) Make available for purchase by the product owner, or the authorized agent of 38
the owner, service parts, including upd ates to the firmware of the parts, for 39
purchase upon fair and reasonable terms. Nothing in this section requires the 40
manufacturer to sell service parts if the service parts are no longer available 41
to the manufacturer or the authorized repair channel of the manufacturer. 42
(b) Manufacturers that sell diagnostic, service, or repair information to an independent 43
repair provider or a third-party provider in a format that is standardized with other manufacturers, 44
and on terms and conditions more favorable than the manner and the terms and conditions 45
pursuant to which an authorized repair provider obtains the same diagnostic, service, or repair 46
information, are prohibited from requiring an authorized repair provider to continue purchasing 47
diagnostic, service, or rep air information in a proprietary format, unless the proprietary format 48
includes diagnostic, service, repair, or dealership operations information or functionality that is 49
not available in a standardized format. 50
General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
House Bill 938-First Edition Page 3
(c) Manufacturers of digital electronic produ cts sold or used in th is S tate shall make 1
available for purchase by owners and independent repair facilities all diagnostic repair tools, 2
incorporating the same diagnostic repair and remote diagnostic capabilities that the manufacturer 3
makes available to i ts own repair or engineering staff or any authorized repair providers, upon 4
fair and reasonable terms. 5
(d) Manufacturers that provide repair information to aftermarket tool, diagnostics, or 6
third-party service information publications and systems have full y satisfied their obligations 7
under this section and thereafter are not responsible for the content and functionality of 8
aftermarket diagnostic tools or service information systems. 9
(e) Manufacturers of digital electronic products sold or used in the State for the purposes 10
of providing security -related functions may not exclude diagnostic, service, and repair 11
information necessary to reset a security -related electronic function from information provided 12
to owners and independent repair facilities. If necess ary for security purposes, manufacturers 13
may provide information necessary to reset and unlock system or security -related electronic 14
modules to owners and independent repair facilities through an appropriate secure data release 15
system. 16
"§ 75-152. No requirement to divulge trade secret. 17
This Article does not require the manufacturer to divulge a trade secret. 18
"§ 75-153. No abrogation of contract. 19
This Article shall not be interpreted or construed to abrogate, interfere with, contradict, or 20
alter the t erms of an agreement executed between an authorized repair provider and a 21
manufacturer, including, but not limited to , performing warranty or recall repair work by an 22
authorized repair provider on behalf of a manufacturer pursuant to the authorized repair 23
agreement. Except in the case of a dispute arising between a manufacturer and its authorized 24
repair provider related to either party 's compliance with an existing repair agreement, an 25
authorized repair provider has all of the rights and remedies provided in this section. 26
"§ 75-154. No access to certain information. 27
This Article does not require manufacturers or authorized repair providers to provide an 28
owner or independent repair provider access to nondiagnostic and nonrepair information 29
provided by a manufacturer to an authorized repair provider pursuant to the terms of an 30
authorizing agreement. 31
"§ 75-155. Right to cure. 32
(a) An independent repair provider or owner who believes that a manufacturer has failed 33
to provide information, including documentat ion, updates to firmware, safety and security 34
corrections, diagnostics, documentation, or a tool required by this section , must notify the 35
manufacturer in writing and give the manufacturer 30 days from the time the manufacturer 36
receives the complaint to cure the failure. If the manufacturer cures the complaint within 30 days, 37
damages are limited to actual damages in any subsequent litigation. 38
(b) If the manufacturer fails to respond to the notice provided in subsection (a) of this 39
section, or if an independent repair facility or owner is not satisfied with the manufacturer's cure, 40
the independent repair facility or owner may file a complaint in district court. The complaint 41
must include all of the following: 42
(1) Written information confirming that the complainant has attempted to acquire 43
and use, through the then-available standard support function provided by the 44
manufacturer, all relevant diagnostics, tools, service parts, documentation, 45
and updates to embedded software, including communication with custome r 46
assistance via the manufacturer's then-standard process, if made available by 47
the manufacturer. 48
(2) Evidence of manufacturer notification as required in subsection (a) of this 49
section." 50
SECTION 2. This act becomes effective October 1, 2025. 51