Right to repair vehicles becomes law in Australia AUSTRALIAN MOTOR INDUSTRY EMERGES VICTORIOUS IN A LONG LEGAL BATTLE TO ACCESS VEHICLE DATA FROM OEMS ollowing nearly a decade of campaigning by the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA), the new law will make it illegal for car companies to withhold information from qualified independent mechanics. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have long been tightening their grip on the repair industry, seeking to lock car buyers into dealership service and repair under warranty and beyond. There’s also a corollary effect of making cars, and other electronically controlled equipment, harder to repair after the warranty period and driving customers to replace rather than repair. It’s been a hot topic in the industry for years in the US, which has also introduced legislation. The new Australian rules resulted from the Australian senate passing the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme) Bill 2021. The CEO of the AAAA, Stuart Charity, said the mandatory scheme will require all motor vehicle service and repair information to be made available for purchase by independent repairers at a fair market price.
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MAJOR WIN Charity said it is a major win in keeping the cost of replacement parts, vehicle maintenance, and repair affordable. “It has been a long time coming but will be welcome news for the automotive industry. We started campaigning for this law a decade ago and have been through two government enquiries and even through a voluntary agreement in 2014, which was a complete failure,” he said.
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Auto Channel Issue #37 July 2021
In Australia, the motor vehicle servicing and repair industry involves nearly 35,000 businesses employing more than 106,000 Australians. Charity explained that around 1 in 10 motor vehicles taken to repair workshops are affected by a lack of access to service and repair information. “This can often lead to higher service costs for consumers. What this law means is that the service and repair information that car manufacturers share with their dealership network must also be made available to independent repairers.” Charity singled out the Federal Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar. “He has personally steered this through government, and we thank him for his leadership.”
DOMINANT POSITION Speaking in support of the bill in the Australian parliament, Fremantle Labour MP John Wilson said, “It essentially takes away what could be rightly described, up to a point, as a monopoly. It’s probably better to describe it as an ineffective and obstructive kind of vertical integration. We essentially had a situation where car manufacturers and related dealers ... denied the ability for independent repairers to undertake that work.” Wilson quoted a member of the industry as saying: “The modern motor vehicle is just basically a computer on wheels. Even simple things like changing a tyre, changing a component on that vehicle, checking the oil level, and what have you is all now computerised. The car companies are controlling the computer gateway into and out of the vehicle and how you communicate with that vehicle. And at the
moment, they’re shutting independent local mechanics out. “It started off with intermittent issues on older vehicles, but as each model year has come out, the situation is getting more and more dire. Our industry is having to use workarounds. Sometimes it might take them four, five hours to find the information for an issue they should have got in 10–15 minutes. That’s a loss of productivity and a loss of profitability.” Wilson also said that properly effective and fair markets don’t naturally occur. “If you want fair, open, and competitive markets, you need to have carefully, rigorously, and properly overseen markets.” The new scheme will be monitored for compliance by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. New Zealand is going to follow the lead set overseas on this issue. The right to repair is an issue that’s much wider than motor vehicle repair. It applies to everything from phones to vacuum cleaners. Former chief executive of Consumer NZ, Sue Chetwin, told Stuff in 2019 that Consumer supported ‘right to repair’ rules as too many appliances were being thrown out because there was no way to repair them. “We have been saying for some time that appliances should be repairable rather than having to be scrapped before the end of their useful life,” Chetwin said. “Those who are authorised to do repairs should be broadened so that consumers don’t lose their rights if an ‘unauthorised’ repairer does the work.” Commerce minister Kris Faafoi said in 2019 the potential for longer lasting products could only be a good thing for New Zealand. “Bringing consumers longer lasting products and reducing costs by enabling an aftermarket for repairs would benefit many New Zealanders, and the effect on the environment is another positive,” Faafoi said. “However, as a small country it makes sense to see how these developments are working in jurisdictions ahead of us in implementation and to learn from that.” Faafoi said as New Zealand was at the end of the global supply chain, consumers were likely to benefit from business moves towards new international requirements.
