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The FTC should stop tech companies from bricking their products, consumer groups say
The practice creates tons of waste, the letter claims.
The groups, including Consumer Reports, iFixIt, US PIRG, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Economic Justice, and Californians Against Waste, have signed onto a letter asking the FTC to “create clear guidance” on software tethering. “While the FTC has taken some limited actions with regard to this issue, a lack of clarity and enforcement has led to an ecosystem where consumers cannot reliably count on the connected products they buy to last,” the letter reads. “Manufacturers increasingly use software to lock us into only using our tech in ways that just-so-happen to generate the most profits for them,” Lucas Rockett Gutterman, Designed to Last director with US PIRG, said in an emailed statement.
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