The Consumer Right to Repair Digital Electronics Equipment Act (Colorado)

The Consumer Right to Repair Digital Electronic Equipment Act, enacted as Colorado House Bill 24-1121 (HB24-1121), is a state law that expanded Colorado's existing right to repair framework to cover a broad range of consumer and enterprise digital electronic equipment. The Act was signed by Governor Jared Polis on May 28, 2024, and took effect on January 1, 2026. Among its signature provisions, the Act prohibits certain uses of parts pairing — the software practice of linking replacement components to a specific device — and it amends Sections 6-1-1502 and 6-1-1503 of the Colorado Revised Statutes, making violations deceptive trade practices under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. At the time of passage, Colorado became the fifth U.S. state to enact a consumer-electronics right-to-repair law, following New York, California, Minnesota, and Oregon, and was described by Law Week Colorado as having the broadest repair rights in the country.

The scope of the Act has since been narrowed by a 2025 follow-up law exempting quantum computing equipment (HB25-1330), and a further industry-backed exemption bill, Colorado SB26-090, was introduced in 2026 to carve out a broad definition of "critical infrastructure" information technology equipment. SB26-090 remains pending before the Colorado House as of April 2026.

Background

HB24-1121 was the fourth right-to-repair bill introduced in Colorado and the third to pass. An earlier consumer-electronics bill, HB21-1199 or the 'Consumer Digital Repair Bill Of Rights', was postponed indefinitely by the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee on March 25, 2021. After that setback, advocates and legislators adopted an incremental strategy, first passing narrower bills targeted at specific product categories. HB22-1031 extended right-to-repair protections to powered wheelchairs and took effect on January 1, 2023, and HB23-1011 extended comparable protections to agricultural equipment, taking effect on January 1, 2024. Representative Brianna Titone was a lead sponsor of all three successful bills and HB24-1121 was grafted onto the same statutory framework in Title 6 of the Colorado Revised Statutes.

Provisions of the Act

Covered equipment

The Act applies to hardware products that depend on embedded digital electronics and were first manufactured and first sold or used in Colorado on or after July 1, 2021. This coverage includes cell phones, laptops, tablets, televisions, printers, household appliances, HVAC systems, servers, and a wide range of other devices.

Exclusions

The statute contains an extensive list of exclusions, many of which were added during the legislative process. Excluded categories include motor vehicles; marine, aviation, and recreational-vehicle equipment; medical devices other than powered wheelchairs (which remain covered under HB22-1031); industrial and construction equipment; electric vehicle charging infrastructure; emergency response communications equipment; modems and routers provided by internet service providers; video game consoles; and fire alarm, intrusion detection, life-safety, and physical-access control systems. The exemption for video game consoles was sought by the Entertainment Software Association, which argued that including consoles would make it easier to introduce modifications permitting the play of pirated games.

Obligations on manufacturers

Manufacturers of covered equipment are required to make the parts, tools, embedded software, firmware, documentation, and updates needed for diagnosis, maintenance, and repair available to independent repair providers and owners on fair and reasonable terms. Software tools must be provided at no charge; physical tools may be billed only at the reasonable actual cost of preparation and shipping; and documentation and firmware may not be priced above what the manufacturer charges its own authorized repair network or above manufacturer suggested retail price. The Act does not require manufacturers to license intellectual property, release source code, or disable anti-theft protections configured by an owner.

Parts pairing prohibition

Parts pairing is defined in the statute as a "manufacturer's practice of using software to identify component parts through a unique identifier". For equipment first manufactured and sold or used in Colorado after January 1, 2026, the Act prohibits the use of parts pairing to prevent an independent repair provider or owner from installing or enabling an otherwise functional replacement part, to reduce the functionality or performance of the equipment, or to cause persistent nuisance notifications or warnings related to the replacement part. The statute contains a limited exception permitting continued use of parts pairing for certain stand-alone biometric authentication components. Colorado and Oregon are the only U.S. states that have enacted statutory prohibitions on parts pairing, and iFixit has described Colorado's prohibition as the more expansive of the two.

Enforcement

Violations of the Act are classified as deceptive trade practices under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act and are enforceable by the Colorado Attorney General and district attorneys. Civil penalties of up to $20,000 per violation are available.

Requirements for repair providers

Before providing repair services, an independent repair provider is required to give the device owner notice indicating that the provider is not an authorized repair provider of the manufacturer and whether the provider uses any new or used replacement parts from a supplier other than the manufacturer.

Legislative history

HB24-1121 was introduced in the Colorado House of Representatives on January 29, 2024. Its prime House sponsors were Representatives Brianna Titone (D-Arvada) and Steven Woodrow (D-Denver), and its prime Senate sponsors were Senators Jeff Bridges (D-Arapahoe) and Nick Hinrichsen (D-Pueblo), with additional Democratic co-sponsors in both chambers.

The bill proceeded through committee and floor votes on largely partisan lines, with Democrats in support and Republicans opposed. The House Business Affairs and Labor Committee referred the bill as amended by an 8–3 vote on February 29, 2024, and it passed the House on third reading on March 12, 2024, by a vote of 39–18. The Senate Business, Labor, and Technology Committee referred the bill on April 11, 2024, by a vote of 5–2, and it passed the Senate on third reading on April 24, 2024, by a vote of 21–13. The House concurred in the Senate amendments and repassed the bill on April 30, 2024.

Eleven amendments were adopted during the legislative process. Several were consequential: Senate amendments moved the coverage start date from 2015 to July 1, 2021; added the exemption for biometric authentication components; added the exemption for fire alarm, intrusion detection, life-safety, and physical-access control systems; and strengthened trade-secret and cybersecurity language. Governor Polis signed the bill on May 28, 2024, describing it as one of the most expansive right-to-repair laws in the United States.

Support

The bill was supported by a coalition of consumer, repair-industry, farmer, and disability-rights organizations that had coordinated on the two earlier Colorado right-to-repair laws. Coalition members included the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG), U.S. PIRG, iFixit, Repair.org, Consumer Reports, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, and securepairs.org. The Colorado chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business also supported the bill, characterizing it as favorable to small repair businesses.

The bill drew support from the Federal Trade Commission, which on February 29, 2024 sent Bureau of Consumer Protection attorney Christine M. Todaro to testify in favor before the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee. The FTC's appearance was authorized by its commissioners on a 3–0 vote.

Google supported the bill, sending director of consumer hardware operations Steven Nickel to testify in favor at committee hearings. Apple lobbied against earlier versions of the bill but shifted to a neutral position following Senate amendments that added the biometric-authentication exception. Senator Bridges subsequently described HB24-1121 as the first right-to-repair bill on which Google, Apple, and independent repair shops had all agreed.

Opposition

Opposition to the bill came primarily from technology trade associations, a manufacturer-aligned coalition, and most Republican legislators. TechNet's Colorado and Central United States executive director Ruthie Barko testified that the bill would be burdensome on supply chains and raised concerns about trade-secret protection and privacy. CTIA state affairs director Michael Blank testified that the existing marketplace already provided adequate repair options. The Repair Done Right Coalition, led by Dustin Brighton, raised concerns about lithium-ion battery handling and cybersecurity.

Republican legislators raised a mixture of innovation, property, and market-design concerns during floor debate. Representative Mike Lynch (R-Wellington) argued that the bill would discourage product innovation and allow third parties to profit from manufacturers' work, and Representative Lisa Frizell (R-Castle Rock) questioned whether the law would reduce manufacturer willingness to sell products in Colorado.

Several sector-specific trade associations pursued carve-outs rather than opposing the bill in whole. The Entertainment Software Association secured the video game console exemption. The Security Industry Association and the Colorado Burglar and Fire Alarm Association both publicly took credit for negotiating the addition of the exemption covering fire alarm, intrusion detection, life-safety, and physical-access control systems.

National context

At the time of its passage, HB24-1121 was the fifth U.S. state law aimed at consumer electronics right to repair, following New York's Digital Fair Repair Act (effective December 28, 2023), California's SB 244 (effective July 1, 2024), Minnesota's Digital Fair Repair Act (effective July 1, 2024), and Oregon's SB 1596 (effective January 1, 2025, with enforcement from 2027). Legal commentators noted that while these laws share a common core of parts, tools, and documentation requirements, they differ in scope, exemptions, and enforcement mechanisms. Colorado's Act is distinguished by its coverage of enterprise-class equipment, its parts-pairing prohibition, and its integration into the same statutory framework as Colorado's existing wheelchair and agricultural-equipment repair laws.

At the federal level, President Biden's Executive Order 14036, signed on July 9, 2021, directed the FTC to address repair restrictions, and the FTC subsequently issued a unanimous policy statement and brought settlements against Harley-Davidson, Westinghouse, and Weber. A federal Fair Repair Act has been introduced multiple times in Congress but has not been enacted.

Subsequent amendments and current status

HB25-1330 (2025): Quantum computing exemption

In 2025, the Colorado General Assembly passed HB25-1330, which added a further exemption to the Consumer Repair Bill of Rights Act for devices, components, and systems designed to perform or facilitate quantum information processing, as well as certain quantum sensing devices. The bill was sponsored by Representatives Brianna Titone and Matt Soper and Senators Nick Hinrichsen and Mark Baisley, and the exemption took effect on January 1, 2026, alongside HB24-1121's main provisions.

Implementation and enforcement

HB24-1121 took effect on January 1, 2026. As of April 2026, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser's office has not publicly announced enforcement actions under the Act or issued formal implementation guidance. The Colorado Attorney General has historically made use of educational outreach to regulated entities before pursuing enforcement under new consumer-protection statutes.

SB26-090 (2026): Critical infrastructure exemption

Main article: Colorado SB26-090 critical infrastructure exemption

On February 10, 2026, Senator John Carson (R) introduced SB26-090, which would exempt information technology equipment "intended for use in critical infrastructure" from the Consumer Repair Bill of Rights Act. The bill ties its definition of critical infrastructure to the federal statutory definition at 42 U.S.C. § 5195c(e). Repair advocates, including iFixit and CoPIRG, have argued that the bill's reference to the federal definition is broad enough to allow manufacturers to self-designate a wide range of products, such as routers, servers, and networking equipment used in business, healthcare, or government settings, as exempt. Cisco and IBM have been identified in public reporting as the primary corporate backers of the bill.

On April 2, 2026, the Senate Business, Labor, and Technology Committee voted 5–0 to refer SB26-090 to the full Senate. The Senate passed the bill on second reading on April 7, 2026, without amendments, and on third reading on April 16, 2026, by a vote of 22–13, with floor amendment L.006 adopted 35–0. The bill subsequently moved to the Colorado House of Representatives for consideration.

See also

• Colorado SB26-090 critical infrastructure exemption