Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said on Monday that her office will not enforce the state’s revised “right to repair” law until after the federal court rules on claims challenging the legislation, according to a court filing.
The action comes after the Alliance for Automotive Innovation last week asked a U.S. district court for a temporary order barring enforcement of the recently passed ballot measure in Massachusetts that expands access to data related to vehicle maintenance and repair.
In response to the attorney general, the alliance has conditionally withdrawn its request.
A trial is expected to take place in 2021 unless the claims are dismissed. The law is scheduled to go into effect by Dec. 18, according to the attorney general’s court filing.
The updated right-to-repair law requires automakers to equip vehicles that use telematics — which collect and wirelessly transmit information such as crash notifications and remote diagnostics — with a standardized open-access data platform that is accessible to vehicle owners or third parties such as repair shops starting with the 2022 model year.
The alliance — which represents General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen and other automakers — first filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 20 in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, arguing that the law is “unenforceable because it is unconstitutional” and conflicts with federal laws.
The group also alleges the revised law poses cybersecurity and vehicle safety risks and that the short timeline sets an “impossible task” for compliance.
Robert O’Koniewski, executive vice president of the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association, said the group is grateful to the attorney general “for holding off enforcement of a notice requirement that dealers are required to provide to customers on a law that the factories cannot comply with by next week or probably even by next year.
“There is no reason for any franchised dealer to have his or her license to do business in jeopardy due to a legal standard that other third parties cannot comply with,” he said in an emailed statement to Automotive News. “Further, we look forward to watching the legal process play out as the parties and the federal court attempt to resolve the meaning of this ill-contemplated and poorly drafted statute by next July.”