US ruling: right to car repair is not illegal
Massachusetts citizens decided that they have the right to access their vehicle data for repair purposes. Manufacturers were suing against this for years.
(Image: Boris Rabtsevich/Shutterstock.com)
In Massachusetts, voters approved a right to car repairs by referendum in 2020. However, car manufacturers, above all Fiat (FCA) and General Motors (GM), have prevented the law from coming into force through years of litigation. Only now has there been a first-instance ruling: the car manufacturers have lost this battle against consumer rights.
Specifically, the law passed by the people stipulates that manufacturers offering motor vehicles in Massachusetts must support a standardized data platform. Both owners and independent workshops are to be able to access telemetry data for diagnosis, maintenance, and repair via this platform. This applies to vehicles from model year 2022 onwards. Three quarters of voters favored this in November 2020. The Federal Highway Traffic Safety Administration initially blocked this law, but gave up its opposition in August 2023.
However, some major car manufacturers fear competition between (often cheaper) independent workshops and the brand workshops anointed by the manufacturer. An industry association of car manufacturers with the misleading name Alliance for Automotive Innovation went to the US Federal District Court for Massachusetts in 2020 (Alliance for Automotive Innovation v Andrea Joy Campbell, Ref. 1:20-cv-12090). The lawsuit was mainly supported by FCA and GM, Toyota soon withdrew. The case went to trial without a jury, but no verdict has yet been reached. The plaintiffs succeeded several times in delaying the verdict by reopening certain aspects of the case.
Verdict
Finally, a new judge had to take over the trial. She cut it short and ruled last week. According to the ruling, the law passed by referendum does not violate the constitution or US federal law. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation can lodge an appeal.
The law is an extension of a law on access to car data that was also passed by an overwhelming majority in a referendum in 2012. However, telemetry data was excluded from this. It is now far more important than it was back then and gives brand garages a considerable competitive advantage. It was therefore necessary to extend the right to access data. Some manufacturers, including Subaru and Kia, are trying to evade the law by disabling telemetry on cars sold in Massachusetts.
Similar in Maine
The spectacle is being repeated in the US state of Maine. Voters there took Massachusetts as a model and in November 2023 also passed a right to access data for the purpose of car repair with over 84% of the vote. However, the wording is vague. This opens up a loophole that car companies have been trying to exploit ever since. Initially, they lobbied MPs to water down consumer rights.
The companies failed to achieve a major breakthrough, so the law came into force on Epiphany. It has not yet had any practical effect, as the independent body intended to act as a data clearing house does not yet exist. The manufacturers are in no hurry and are using this absence as an argument in a new lawsuit in the US Federal District Court for Maine (Alliance for Automotive Innovation v Aaron Frey, Ref. 1:25-cv-00041). They want to have the law in Maine declared invalid.
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