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FTC urged to stop companies paywalling hardware you already bought [1]
['Rob Beschizza']
Date: 2024-09-10
At Techdirt, Karl Bode reports on efforts to get the Federal Trade Commission to do something about companies that ruin hardware with software updates. Some will remove features or limit functionality; some will outright turn what you bought into a brick to avoid the costs of maintenance or to get you shopping for more. Bode cites two recent strikes—Peloton adding a $95 fee to its bikes "for no coherent reason" and the Snoo smart basinet suddenly paywalling key features—as examples of a growing problem.
In a letter sent last week to key FTC officials, a coalition of seventeen different groups (including Consumer Reports, iFixit, and US PIRG) requested that the agency take aim at several commonplace anti-consumer practices, including "software tethering" (making hardware useless or less useful later via firmware update), or the act of suddenly locking key functionality behind subscriptions: Both practices are examples of how companies are using software tethers in their devices to infringe on a consumer's right to own the products they buy. 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.
How qaint the term "nickel-and-diming" has become. If only! Even "Dollar and pounding" loses a zero or two to reality, though it does arrive as pleasantly kinetic innuendo.
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[1] Url:
https://boingboing.net/2024/09/10/ftc-urged-to-stop-companies-paywalling-hardware-you-already-bought.html
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