EQUIPMENT FIXES IN A DIGITAL AGE.

When a piece of equipment breaks down on site, rental agreements, subcontractor contracts and other arrangements generally make it clear who gets to open the hood and start tinkering. In particular, the FTC cited the precedent of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975, which forbids manufacturers from tying warranty coverage to customers' use of OEM parts or services. The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), which represents many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that supply the agricultural and construction sectors, has taken a firm stance against both right to repair advocates and efforts to pass legislation at the state and national level codifying complete access to the repair tools and software for machines. Steering owners of devices and equipment to use only OEM-approved repair and service channels could be considered an anticompetitive practice in some circumstances, the FTC concluded. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of ENR: Engineering News-Record is the property of BNP Media and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)