Colorado right to repair 2026

Colorado Right to Repair 2026

Published June 4, 2026

Colorado quietly became home to the strongest right to repair law in the country — and then watched as tech giants tried to gut it within months of it taking effect.

The Law: HB24-1121

HB24-1121 went into effect January 1, 2026. It requires manufacturers to make repair tools, parts, and diagnostic software available to consumers and independent repair shops — no more forcing your cracked screen or dead battery through an overpriced authorized dealer.

The law covers a wide range of devices: smartphones, laptops, tablets, TVs, printers, appliances, HVAC systems, enterprise servers, routers, e-bikes, and audio equipment.

The piece that makes it genuinely different from other states' laws is the ban on parts pairing — the practice where manufacturers program replacement parts to only work with the original device they shipped with. Apple pioneered this with Face ID and battery health warnings that trigger when you swap in a third-party part. Under this law, that's no longer allowed.

CoPIRG's executive director Danny Katz called it "the broadest repair rights in the country" — a distinction earned partly because Colorado's law, unlike laws in other states, doesn't carve out business-to-business exemptions.

The Attack: SB26-090

Almost immediately after the law took effect, Cisco, IBM, and allied tech companies began lobbying for SB26-090 — a bill to exempt any IT equipment "intended for use in critical infrastructure" from the repair requirements.

The problem was the definition. "Critical infrastructure" is a category broad enough to swallow almost anything: a router used by a water utility, a server at a hospital, a network switch at a school district. iFixit warned the bill "could blow a hole in the nation's strongest right to repair law."

SB26-090 passed the Senate 23-13 in April (with 11 Democrats and 2 Republicans opposed) — a sign the tech lobby had real traction. Dozens of supporters and detractors showed up to testify before the House State, Civic, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee.

On April 29, 2026, the House committee voted it down 7-4. The bill died without reaching the governor.

Where Things Stand

HB24-1121 is fully in effect. Manufacturers must comply with repair tool and parts availability requirements, and parts pairing remains banned. Colorado's law stands as the national benchmark for right to repair legislation.

Sources:
- What's Colorado's new Right to Repair law? — CoPIRG/PIRG
- Colorado expands repair rights as electronics rules take effect — Resource Recycling
- A New Colorado Bill Could Blow a Hole in the Nation's Strongest Right to Repair Law — iFixit
- Tech Companies Fail To Kill Colorado's Right to Repair Law — Techdirt
- Proposal exempting some IT equipment from right-to-repair law fails — Colorado Politics
- Colorado Legislature Rejects Changes to Right-to-Repair Law — GovTech