Outlook on the right to repair: how will it find its way into China's Copyright Law?

This article examines the challenges and prospects of establishing the right to repair in China within the framework of its Copyright Law. It highlights that current Chinese copyright provisions, particularly strong protections for technological protection measures, effectively restrict consumers' ability to repair products independently, unlike emerging right-to-repair movements in Europe and the USA. The authors argue that introducing a legal exception allowing circumvention of technological protection measures for repair purposes is both necessary—due to consumer rights, environmental concerns, and high maintenance costs—and feasible, given China's national green development policies and principles in the Civil Code. They propose amending Article 50 of the Copyright Law to explicitly permit such exceptions, aiming to balance the interests of copyright holders and consumers.