from the fighting-the-tides dept
In late 2020, Massachusetts lawmakers (with overwhelming public support) passed an expansion of the state’s “right to repair” law. The original law was the first in the nation to be passed in 2013. The update dramatically improved it, requiring that as of this year, all new telematics-equipped vehicles be accessible via a standardized, transparent platform that allows owners and third-party repair shops to access vehicle data via a mobile device. The goal: reduce repair monopolies, and make it cheaper and easier to get your vehicle repaired.
Of course major auto manufacturers didn’t like this, so they set about trying to demonize the law with false claims and a $26 million ad campaign, including one ad falsely claiming the expansion would help sexual predators. Once the law passed (again, with the overwhelming support of voters) automakers sued to stop it, which has delayed its implementation. That same coalition of automakers (GM, Ford, Honda, Hyundai) are pushing new legislation that would delay implementation even further — to 2025:
“The results of the lawsuit are still pending and automakers continue to fight. On Monday, Massachusetts’ Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure heard automaker backed proposals that would delay the implementation of the law until 2025. “After spending $26 million only to be resoundingly defeated at the ballot box, the big automakers and dealers still don’t get it,” Tommy Hickey, director of Massachusetts Right to Repair Coalition, said in a statement.”
As with Apple, John Deere, and others, the claim that doing absolutely anything about their efforts to monopolize repair (be it DRM, or making manuals and tools hard to get, or suing independent repair shops) erodes public health and safety. Apple, you’ll recall, opposed a state right to repair law in Nebraska by claiming it would turn the state into a “mecca for hackers.”
But it remains an uphill climb for industry. Obnoxious and costly repair restrictions are hugely unpopular, and efforts to do something via legislation are overwhelmingly popular. More than 75% of Massachusetts voters supported the state’s expansion of the law. And the more these companies tend to fight back against the efforts with sleazy and misleading claims and ad campaigns, the more the public tends to become aware of (and ultimately support) these initiatives.
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Filed Under: automakers, massachusetts, ownership, right to repair
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