When it comes to repairing Apple products, Apple is rather strict about it. Basically they try to encourage all their customers to send it directly to Apple or to an authorized service provider, but the only problem with that is that usually official repair services tend to cost more, and so do official parts, resulting in customers going to third-party services instead.
Unfortunately for those who are buying Apple’s newer computers, like the 2018 MacBook Pro or the iMac Pro, it looks like you guys might be stuck using Apple’s own repair services. This is according to reports from MacRumors and Motherboard (via Engadget) who discovered that Apple’s newer computers have a proprietary software that needs to “approve” changes made to the computer systems in order for them to function.
The idea is that because these newer computers use the T2 security enclave, that they need to make sure that these changes/repairs made are legit. However we suppose not many see it that way and it looks like Apple is just trying to prevent users from seeking cheaper repair services. Apple has yet to officially comment on this, but this isn’t the first time Apple has gotten heat over its repair practices.
Several years ago Apple was hit with a lawsuit over “Error 53”, an error message that iOS users saw when they got their iPhones repaired by third-party services. It was suggested that this was done to protect the device as the repair might have compromised Touch ID, and this is looking a lot like a similar situation.