Automakers file suit to stop Massachusetts’ new “Right to Repair” law

Massachusetts’ “Right to Repair” law is facing renewed opposition from automakers. Less than a month after voters overwhelmingly approved a plan that allows vehicle owners and independent mechanics access to vehicle data for repairs, major carmakers are fighting back.

According to Automotive News, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation filed suit on November 20 claiming the revised law—which would go into effect starting with the 2022 model year—is “unenforceable because it is unconstitutional” and conflicts with federal laws. The litigation, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, also claims the Right to Repair law poses cybersecurity and vehicle safety risks, and the short timeline sets an “impossible task” for compliance.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on behalf of Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, and other automakers. It asks the court to “temporarily and permanently” block the law, which is to take effect December 3.

A similar Massachusetts law, which required sharing only mechanical data, was enacted in 2013, but automakers were given five years to comply. Robert O’Koniewski, executive vice president of the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association, told Automotive News that the new, shorter timeline is impossible to meet.

“I don’t know how they’re going to comply from the timeline because it’s just not realistic,” O’Koniewski says. “It takes anywhere upwards of three to five years on development of a model-year vehicle.”

O’Koniewski says the 2025 model year is the soonest that automakers could comply.