Warren, Markey Call on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to Reverse Decision Allowing Car Manufacturers to Ignore Massachusetts' "Right to Repair" Law

Press Release

"NHTSA's decision to give auto manufacturers a green light to ignore state law appears to favor Big Auto, undermine the will of Massachusetts voters and the Biden Administration's competition policy, and raise questions about both the decision process and the substance of the decision by NHTSA's leadership. We are asking NHTSA to explain its rationale for its harmful actions and respect Massachusetts state law by reversing course.

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NHTSA sent the June 13 letter with no warning, circumventing the legal process, contradicting a judicial order, undermining Massachusetts voters, harming competition and hurting consumers, and causing unnecessary confusion by raising this novel view two weeks after enforcement of the law began. Moreover, NHTSA's position is not consistent with Administration policy. President Biden's Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy (EO 14036) states that it is the policy of the Administration to combat the "harmful effects of monopoly and monopsony . . . (in) repair markets,' and encourages the FTC to draft new regulations limiting "manufacturers from restricting people's ability to use independent repair shops or do DIY repairs.'

It is disappointing that NHTSA's letter relies on the argument pushed by major automobile manufacturers that there is, in this case, an irresolvable conflict between maintaining data security and providing independent repair shops with the data they need to conduct repairs. Auto manufacturers have routinely raised safety concerns as a way to "change the subject' and distract consumers from the fact that "vehicle repair and maintenance services from independent repair shops keeps the cost of service and repair down.'"

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