Federal Court Reopens Evidence In Case Challenging Massachusetts Right To Repair Law

On Thursday, October 28, a Boston federal judge agreed to reopen evidence in Alliance for Automotive Innovation v. Healy, a lawsuit challenging recent amendments to the Massachusetts Right to Repair Law (the “Data Law”), and urged the parties to report back by Friday, November 5 with proposals about how to supplement the record. This development will further delay a decision from the court on the injunction sought by the Alliance barring enforcement of the Data Law and its requirement that, commencing with Model Year 2022 (“MY22”), vehicles sold in Massachusetts using telematics systems be equipped with “an inter-operable, standardized and open access platform” that will enable customers and independent repair shops to access mechanical data from those systems.

The court had previously told the parties that it would render a decision on the Alliance’s request for an injunction by November 2. On Monday, October 25, however, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (“AGO”) filed a motion to reopen evidence so that the AGO could show that OEMs can comply with the Data Law by disabling telematics systems in MY22 and later vehicles sold in Massachusetts. The AGO explained that it had been contacted by a Massachusetts resident who reported that he had purchased a 2022 Subaru Outback with its telematics system disabled. According to the AGO, Subaru dealers in Massachusetts are selling MY22 vehicles with a disclaimer that Subaru’s Starlink system is “not available to Massachusetts residents,” and that this is “a direct result of the new Data Law.”

The AGO argues that this new evidence contradicts claims by OEMs during the trial in this matter last summer that it would be impossible for them to implement the sweeping changes to vehicle telematics systems required by the Data Law as early as MY22, which was only months away when Massachusetts residents passed the law by ballot initiative in November 2020. The Alliance opposed the AGO’s motion, noting that the evidence offered by the AGO is inadmissible hearsay. The Alliance also said that the AGO was misconstruing the evidence at trial; the Alliance did not offer evidence that OEMs could not disable telematics systems on MY22 vehicles, but rather, offered expert testimony that compliance with the enhanced telematics requirements by the short deadline imposed by the Data Law was impossible.  Put simply, the technology required by the Data Law simply does not exist today.

At a hearing on Thursday, October 27, the court rejected the Alliance’s objections and directed the parties to report back within a week about how they proposed to further develop the record. The court had previously indicated that it would render a decision on the Alliance’s request for an injunction by November 2, but OEMs will now need to wait until after this latest evidentiary issue is resolved to learn whether they will be required to comply with the Data Law, even though all (or virtually all) OEMs already have begun manufacturing MY22 vehicles. In the meantime, legislation amending the Data Law to extend the compliance deadline until MY25 remains under review by a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature.