New Right To Repair Laws Create Opportunity For Manufucturers To Finance Statutory Risks Through Their Own Captive Insurers

Right to Repair laws increasingly are becoming the norm in many states, "requiring manufacturers to give consumers and independent repair providers access to the tools, parts, and information to repair certain consumer products and other equipment on fair and reasonable terms." Just last year, six more states passed these laws. Fair and reasonable terms require the manufacturer to offer these resources (and any applicable discounts) at the same (or similar) costs and terms as those given to authorized repair providers. While there is some state-to-state variation, “Right to Repair” laws tend to cover a wide range of products, from digital electronics and household appliances to agricultural machinery and medical devices. Many of these statutes were created specifically to avoid electronic waste, eliminate barriers and limitations to third-party repair, and to provide consumers with better options to repair their devices, and limit the number of times a customer buys a replacement product.

This statutory obligation becomes a financial – and insurable – liability to the manufacturer. However, this creates an excellent opportunity for a manufacturer to establish its own captive insurer so that it can finance its own risks associated with these new Right To Repair laws. Using one’s captive insurer to provide the financial backstop to statutory or contractual warranties is nothing new. Con

act one of the executives at #AllianceCaptiveManagement to learn how.

For more about these laws, read this article: https://www.crowell.com/en/insights/client-alerts/right-to-repair-a-growing-trend-for-states-creating-compliance-challenges-for-manufacturers