Right to Repair Just Got Real: New Laws in Connecticut and the EU — and Why It Makes Your Old Devices Worth More
July 2026 is turning into the biggest month the repair movement has ever had. Two major right-to-repair regimes just came online within 30 days of each other — and while the laws are about fixing devices, the ripple effects reach anyone who owns, sells, or trades in electronics.
What Just Changed
Connecticut (effective July 1): Manufacturers of electronics and appliances sold or used in Connecticut must now make repair manuals, replacement parts, and specialized tools available to consumers and independent repair shops on fair terms — for 3 to 5 years depending on the product's price. With Connecticut in force, more than a quarter of Americans now live in a right-to-repair state.
European Union (deadline July 31): The EU's Repair Directive requires manufacturers to repair products like smartphones at a reasonable price and within a reasonable time, ensure access to spare parts, and — nice touch — extend the warranty by 12 months whenever a consumer chooses repair over replacement.
Utah doesn't have its own law yet, but that matters less than you'd think. When manufacturers are forced to publish manuals and sell parts for Connecticut and the EU, those parts and manuals exist, period. Repairability improvements built for one market leak into all of them.
Why This Raises the Floor Under Used Device Values
Follow the chain:
- Parts get cheaper and easier to source → refurbishers can fix more devices profitably.
- More devices are worth fixing → buyback companies (like us) can pay real money for phones that would've been parts-bin material five years ago.
- Repaired devices get a longer second life → demand for used devices grows, because a refurbished phone is no longer a gamble.
This is exactly why we're leaning harder into repair, refurb, and parts resale. A cracked iPhone was never worthless — most of its value lives in the logic board, cameras, and housing — but right-to-repair momentum keeps pushing the economics in the seller's favor. The device in your drawer with the shattered screen? Its salvage math improves every time one of these laws lands.
One honest caveat: the same memory-price surge raising used device values is also raising some parts costs, which squeezes repair margins. The two forces are fighting it out this year. Net-net, sellers still come out ahead — there have never been more ways for your old device to be worth something.
What This Means for You, Practically
- Don't toss damaged devices. Cracked screens, bad batteries, broken buttons — we buy those, and repair-friendly economics mean better offers over time.
- Don't assume "old" means "worthless." Longer parts availability stretches how long a device stays fixable and resellable.
- When you upgrade, sell — don't drawer it. A device loses value every month it sits. The repair economy gives it a second life now; your junk drawer gives it a slow death.
We inspect, buy, and route devices to their best second life every day — resale, refurbishment, or parts. That's the repair economy working, and it pays you cash.
See What Your Device Is Worth →
