Repair Often Costs More Than Replace

Consumer devices are frequently engineered and sold in ways that make parts expensive, diagnostics proprietary, and labor time‑consuming, so shoppers often find buying a new device cheaper than fixing an old one. Software locks, supply chain pricing for spare parts, and the thin margins of independent repair shops combine to make repair economically unattractive. — This reframes right‑to‑repair and e‑waste debates as not just legal fights but market‑structure and design problems that policymakers and consumers must address.