Jan. 6—Starting this week, Maine car dealers must notify buyers that they have a right to access mechanical data that manufacturers gather on their vehicles through wireless technology, but whether or exactly how that information will be provided remains to be seen.
Maine’s Automotive Right to Repair Law took effect Sunday, making it possible for owners to seek information gathered by a vehicle’s telematics system and to authorize an independent repair shop to use the information.
The Maine Attorney General’s Office is still consulting with a working group of industry representatives to figure out how the law will be enforced.
At the time of sale, dealers must present and ask buyers to sign a written notice of the law, which Maine voters approved by an 84% margin in November 2023. The AG’s office provided the notice and an explanation of the law to dealers.
Dealers are prepared to comply with the disclosure requirement, but it’s unclear how manufacturers will respond to individual requests for or access to information gathered by telematics systems.
“We’re waiting like everyone else to see how it works,” said Jack Quirk, president and CEO of Quirk Auto Group, whose dealerships across Maine represent 13 manufacturers. Quirk is the dealer representative on the AG’s working group.
Missing from the notice is the law’s stipulation that any vehicle owner or authorized repair shop that is denied access to telematics data may file a civil lawsuit seeking damages of at least $10,000. The law doesn’t specify who would pay the penalty, but Quirk guessed it would be manufacturers.
“It’s something the manufacturers have to provide,” Quirk said Monday. “This is not our fight. We’re independent repair (shops).”
The law applies to new and used cars, trucks and heavy-duty vehicles sold in Maine starting Jan. 5. It doesn’t apply to vehicles purchased out of state or online.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Christopher Taub and Elizabeth Frazier, an attorney with Pierce Atwood who represents manufacturers on the working group, didn’t respond to requests for interviews on Monday.
The working group’s next meeting is Jan. 17, when it’s expected to finalize recommendations in a draft report to the Legislature that’s due Feb. 28.
The Maine Right to Repair Coalition led the ballot initiative to make all vehicle repair and maintenance data accessible to car owners and authorized repair shops. As vehicles have grown more computerized, supporters say some data is being withheld from consumers, independent operators and after-market companies.
Car manufacturers maintain that they offer open data access to all repair shops, but supporters of the new law say it’s only accessible through cost-prohibitive equipment and repair programs that are unique to each car maker.
“This is a big win for consumers and small businesses as folks in Maine will now be the gatekeepers of their own information, allowing them to shop around and choose where they get their cars repaired,” Tommy Hickey, director of Maine Right to Repair. said Monday.
A vehicle’s telematics system “collects information generated by the operation of the vehicle and transmits that information using wireless communications to a remote receiving point where the information is stored or used,” according to the buyer’s notice.
The working group — made up of independent repair operators, dealers, manufacturers and other industry representatives — was set up to recommend the makeup of an independent rule-making and enforcement authority that would implement and enforce the law.
The group has already agreed to recommend doing away with unclear language that called for the enforcement authority to oversee an online portal where all manufacturers would share information with buyers and authorized repair shops.
Concerns about maintaining buyer privacy and cybersecurity on a state-sponsored site led the working group to conclude unanimously that “all vehicle data should be directly accessible (but) remain under the control of vehicle manufacturers, with the manufacturers then making the data available to owners and (upon authorization by owners) independent repair facilities.”
The working group’s concerns mirrored those of the Legislature’s Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement and Business Committee, which voted 7-1 last February to scrap that part of the law. The bill later died.
At the time, some lawmakers and right-to-repair advocates who supported a standardized, state-sponsored platform for the repair data, said such an amendment would go against the will of voters.
Hickey, director of Maine Right to Repair, said have a state-sponsored portal was never the intent of the legislation.
Hickey noted that Massachusetts, the only other state to have passed a right-to-repair law, doesn’t have a standardized platform. That law has yet to take effect because car makers have challenged it in federal court.
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