Auto Industry Wins More Delays In Massachusetts Auto Repair Case
More than 2 years after expanding Massachusetts’ automobile right to repair law, voters in the state have yet to see it enacted. A federal judge’s decision last week means they’ll wait even longer.
A federal judge in Massachusetts sided with an automotive industry group last week, agreeing to allow more evidence in a case challenging the constitutionality of a 2020 ballot measure that expanded that state’s decade-old automobile right to repair law.
The order by Federal Judge Douglas Woodlock on January 12th adds at least another month of hearings and deliberations to the trial, which began more than two years ago and has seen more than half a dozen self-imposed deadlines for a ruling come and go. The delays have stalled enforcement of Question 1, a Massachusetts ballot measure that expanded the state’s existing automobile right to repair law to cover maintenance and diagnostic data transmitted wirelessly via vehicle telematics systems.
Spat Over Maine Ballot Measure
In an order, Judge Woodlock laid out a timetable for one of the parties in the case, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI), which represents auto manufacturers, to depose the Auto Care Association (ACA), an association representing the automotive aftermarket. The Auto Care Association is a major backer of right to repair laws including Question 1 in Massachusetts and a similar ballot measure, recently approved by the Maine Secretary of State for a state-wide ballot measure in 2023.
