A washing machine manufacturer charges $/€ 200 just to show up to examine an out-of-warranty appliance, before the repair even starts. New machines typically start at $/€ 250 and working used machines ~$/€ 180.

Manufacturers have locked in a monopoly on repair by blocking disclosure of repair information like secret button sequences needed to just view and error codes and decode them. After 10 years they often “lose” the information to make repair even less likely.

Indeed it makes no sense to pay the $/€ 200 just to find out if repair is even possible. Monopolists normally simply want to be overpaid. But in this case it’s even worse than that: they have deliberately priced themselves out of the market because they have a conflict of interest in selling more new machines.

How can local govs counter this fucked up situation? A price control could not work because the manufacturer would just opt not to do any out-of-warrny repair work in a region with price controls since they don’t seriously want the work anyway.

The broader discussion on what all should go into a right to repair petition to city council is here.