House Committee Publishes Apple Emails Showing Internal Debate on Right to Repair

At the request of the House Judiciary Committee, Apple has turned over internal communications on Right to Repair, revealing that the company’s seemingly united front against Right to Repair is actually an internal debate with one Apple memo asking, “What’s our repair strategy?” (via iFixit).

The memo from Apple’s Director of Corporate Communications shows more division inside Apple than one could have ever guessed. The memo continues, “…with one hand we are making these changes and the other is actively fighting Right to Repair legislation moving in 20 states without real coordination for how updated policies could be used to leverage our position.”

Other emails show Apple’s discussion on how its repair policies are perceived in the press, and surprise among the ranks as Apple learns some of their repair manuals were published without full authorization.

The New York Times editorial in favor of Right to Repair last April set off a fire alarm inside Apple’s public relations team. When Binyamin Appelbaum reached out to research the issue, Apple’s VP of communications said in an internal email that “We should get him on the phone with [Apple VP Greg] Joz [Joswiak] or [Senior VP] Phil [Schiller].”

That spawned an instant debate. “The larger issue is that our strategy around all of this is unclear. Right now we’re talking out of both sides of our mouth and no one is clear on where we’re headed.”

While the Judiciary Committee has now taken down the full PDF that included all of Apple’s internal memos, it can still be accessed via iFixit at this link.