Massachusetts Judge Dismisses Auto Industry Lawsuit Over State’s Popular ‘Right To Repair’ Reforms

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 all new 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 (with the added bonus of less environmental harm).

Mass. automakers immediately got to work trying to scare the press, public, and legislators away from the improvements by running ads claiming that the updated legislation would be a boon to sexual predators. They also filed suit under the banner of the inaccurately named Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI), which stalled the bill from taking effect for the better part of the last four years (thanks to what U.S. District Judge Douglas Woolock called “unforeseeable and unforeseen circumstances“).

After the case was finally transferred to a new judge, late last week U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston dismissed the AAI’s lawsuit. Massachusetts AG Andrea Joy Campbell applauded the ruling. The auto industry, signaling its intent to appeal, once again lied by claiming that making car repairs easier and cheaper poses a security threat to consumers:

“Today’s decision will introduce potential security risks to our customers and their vehicles.”

Which, again, is pretty funny coming from an industry with some of the worst privacy and security standards in all of tech. Mozilla’s recent report on flimsy auto industry privacy standards found the industry routinely collects all manner of sensitive driver behavior data (including data on your phone), doesn’t adequately encrypt it, then sells access to it to a broad variety of different middlemen.

And the New York Times, prompted by efforts by Senator Ron Wyden, recently unveiled how companies like GM routinely mislead customers about the scope and nature of the data collection, often selling sensitive consumer data covertly to insurance providers who then jack up owners’ insurance rates. The revelations resulted in wave of lawsuits.

So yes, the auto industry cares not a whit about consumer security and privacy, until their lucrative attempted dealership repair monopolies are threatened, at which point they’re suddenly and uncharacteristically champions of consumer welfare. Curious how that works.

Automakers aren’t alone in their efforts to try and demonize popular, bipartisan repair reforms. Apple and John Deere have also spent years trying to defend their profitable repair monopolies by claiming that making access to less expensive options will result in an absolute parade of security and privacy problems for consumers. A bipartisan 2021 FTC study found the complaints to be empty, self-serving bluster.