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Alliances for and against bipartisan bill focus on messages of consumers’ freedom of choice versus already adequate access to repair data
By Lois Tuffin
Depending on who you talk to, repair shops will be handcuffed from fixing vehicles without access to data or they already have what they need to do the job. However, both sides of the right-to-repair issue know that passing the Repair Act would change the automotive landscape.
That’s why the heat is on to lobby members of Congress before the federal election in November.
Image courtesy of Doka Ryan via Pixabay
In November 2023, the Repair Act passed unanimously through the Congress’s Energy and Communication Subcommittee. Its co-sponsors – 25 Republicans and 25 Democrats – are addressing the proposed amendments raised during the previous debate. They hope to push it ahead for a vote by October.
Primarily, the REPAIR Act:
Gives replacement part manufacturers and independent repair shops access critical information, tools and equipment without technological or legal barriers
Requires OEMs using telematics to make any repair information and tools available at a fair cost
Provides vehicle owners with their vehicles’ data, which they can share with their repairer of choice.
“We want to build this groundswell of momentum for the Right to Repair Act but our biggest issue is time,” said Lisa Foshee, Senior Vice President, Government Affairs, for the Auto Care Association (ACA) in April. “The facts are on our side; time is not on our side.”
However, parties for and against the Bill present facts that support their version of auto repair’s future. In the case of the ACA and its allies, they argue that freedom of choice of who repairs a vehicle is an inherent American value. Meanwhile, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation and its partners say they resolved this issue in July.
The Case Against the Bill
Last summer, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation announced that automakers would openly share the same diagnostic and repair data with aftermarket shops that the OEMs provide to their franchised dealerships. Its members want a 2014 voluntary nationwide right-to-repair agreement and the 2023 automotive repair data sharing commitment codified into federal law.
The 2023 landmark partnership remains strong and the independent repair community continues to thrive, according to a statement provided by Brian Weiss, Senior Vice President for the Alliance. In fact, the aftermarket earned about 70 percent of all post-sale, vehicle-related revenues from 2014 to 2023. (On this, the ACA agrees.)
Brian Weiss
Further, the Alliance, Automotive Service Association and the Society of Collision Repair Specialists sent a joint letter to Congress. In this message, they offer to help vehicle owners and independent repair shop staff who cannot easily locate vehicle diagnostic and repair data via repairinfo@autosinnovate.org.
The letter acknowledges that independent repairers are entitled to the same diagnostic and repair data as OEMs and the learning curve needed to keep up with the rapid pace of automotive innovation. Yet, new technologies - like telematics and alternative power transmissions – “may interfere with that right,” that statement reads.
The Alliance cites a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) as validating many of the points it has made to federal and state policymakers. In particular, Vehicle Repair: Information on Evolving Vehicle Technologies and Consumer Choice says automakers make repair and diagnostic data available to aftermarket shops through physical ports inside vehicles. It also says industry and independent repair stakeholders agreed they don’t need wireless telematics data to conduct repairs.
In the past, the Alliance has pointed out potential cybersecurity risks. In a four-page memo in response to Maine’s Right to Repair bill, the Alliance questioned whether shops would sell consumers’ data or use it to sell products after reading screens inside vehicles.
“Data in the wrong hands or without proper cybersecurity controls is a threat to privacy and safety,” the memo read.
Yet, GAO researchers quote two cybersecurity experts stating that automakers could provide secure access to telematic diagnostic and repair data with early-design changes.
The Case for the Bill
The GAO report notes that telematics data “could give dealerships a competitive advantage over independent repair shops in conducting some repairs.” It also found that “independent repair shops may face some limitations” in accessing overall repair data.
In interviews, eight of 14 independent repair stakeholders “expressed concerns about lack of enforceability in the 2014 Memorandum and 2023 commitment” as technology evolves.
Kathleen Callaghan already struggles to access the telematic data she needs for some repairs. The owner of Xpertech Auto Repair in Englewood, Florida says this barrier can draw out a diagnosis to two or four times longer than usual. In the end, the consumer pays more.
“Access is really important because we don’t have dealership services locally,” she adds. “I testified before Congress because I believe in my heart that consumers need to be able to have the choice of who has access to the data in their vehicles.”
“Vehicle ownership represents our independence. We all want to be independent and we all want freedom of choice…We need guaranteed access to repair and maintenance data.”
On March 14, the Repair Act’s advocates’ hopes were buoyed by comments by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ) to the U.S. Copyright Office about restrictions against circumventing technology-protection measures for better access to copyrighted content.
In their comment, the FTC and DOJ said exempting auto repair would promote competition for replacement parts, repair and maintenance. In turn, this would “benefit consumers and businesses by making it easier and cheaper to fix things they own” via independent service providers.
Who’s on which side?
The ACA continues its lobby in partnership with:
· the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA)
· the CAR Coalition
· the Marine Contact
· the American Motorcyclist Association
· the Tire Industry Association
· the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association
· the Commercial Vehicle Trade Association
Meanwhile, the Alliance has 43 members on its team, largely OEMS, autonomous vehicle innovators and equipment suppliers, including batteries and semiconductors.
“The Alliance are formidable adversaries,” says Foshee of the ACA. “It has spent tens of millions of dollars on the Hill. We cannot compete that way but we think we are right on the issues and that goes a long way.”
Want to read more? Check out these articles by Lois in Motor Magazine:
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