Court of Justice of the EU decides that car manufacturers cannot arbitrarily charge exorbitant license fees for vehicle information.
Important stage victory with implications for the independent aftermarket
With the increase in intelligent controls and complex system networking in vehicles, data is becoming the gold of tomorrow. Because without the right data - whether obtained in the vehicle, embedded in the vehicle software by the manufacturer or used for repair and service - nothing works today. International and national industry associations, to which HELLA and Hella Gutmann also belong, are therefore fighting for the accessibility of information for all market participants, including independent garages.
A recent ruling by the ECJ (Court of Justice of the EU) represents an important stage victory. On the basis of a referral from the Cologne Regional Court in June 2021, the ECJ handed down its judgment in the ADPA/GVA v. Peugeot/PSA case (C-390/21) on October 27, 2022. As communicated by the law firm Osborne Clarke, it confirmed the legal opinion of the plaintiffs ADPA (Automotive Data Publishers Association) and GVA (Gesamtverband Autoteile-Handel) that the information provider (car manufacturer) cannot additionally demand the conclusion of a license agreement on its own terms in the case of statutory access claims and fee regulations. The ECJ ruled that vehicle manufacturers may not arbitrarily charge "license fees" for repair and maintenance information. They must make the information freely available to the market. For this, they may charge "reasonable and proportionate" fees. How these are to be measured in concrete terms is to be clarified in further proceedings before the Cologne Regional Court.
The ECJ also clarified that Regulation 2018/858 on the approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles also applies to older vehicle models that were type-approved before it came into force. PSA had argued that the regulation could only apply to models approved after September 2020. Accordingly, they would not be required to provide repair and maintenance information in the form of electronic and machine-readable records for the majority of their vehicles.
Michael Pedersen, Head of Data Supply at Hella Gutmann and one of the founding board members of ADPA, clarifies: “In general it is a very positive result for all operators in the value chain in the independent automotive aftermarket and thereby ultimately for the car owners. It ensures the whole IAM to continue benefitting from affordable data services for all vehicles. We are proud that ADPA, with this initiative, contributed to a well-functioning vehicle repair eco-system.”
Regardless of the real implementation of the free accessibility of information demanded by the industry associations, Hella Gutmann, as a manufacturer of cross-brand diagnostic and calibration solutions, feels it has a duty to support independent garages with the data and data access they need. Through HGS Data and the mega macs software, Hella Gutmann provides its customers and business partners with high-quality data (mostly OE data). In addition, for three years now Hella Gutmann has been meeting the challenge of providing its customers with unimpeded access to system and vehicle data that is protected by vehicle manufacturers' security gateways against unauthorized access. This is achieved via the cross-brand Cyber Security Management (CSM) integrated in the mega macs software. The successive expansion of this important function to as many manufacturers as possible represents an enormous effort in terms of both contracts and finances. In the past fiscal year, the company succeeded in extending CSM to twelve brands currently in common use in Europe.
