Congress mandates car owners' right to repair with independent shops

What it does

This bill requires car manufacturers to give owners access to their vehicle's data and repair information, and prohibits manufacturers from blocking owners from using independent repair shops, aftermarket parts, or third-party diagnostic tools. Owners benefit by gaining the right to choose where and how to repair their cars; independent repair shops and parts makers benefit by gaining access to the technical information needed to compete; car manufacturers lose the ability to lock customers into their own service networks.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core mechanism is a prohibition on manufacturer barriers to independent repair, data access, and parts compatibility. It is fundamentally a consumer-protection and competition measure, not a subsidy, carve-out, or deregulation.

What the text implies

• Manufacturers may face significant compliance costs to redesign software, diagnostic systems, and parts-pairing logic to accommodate third-party access without compromising safety or cybersecurity—costs that could be passed to consumers through higher vehicle prices.
• The bill's definition of 'vehicle-generated data' is broad and includes diagnostic and prognostic data; manufacturers may argue that some data is proprietary or safety-critical, leading to litigation over what must be shared.
• The FTC and NHTSA gain broad rulemaking authority to expand definitions and set security standards; regulatory interpretation will determine the bill's real scope and burden on manufacturers.
• Independent repair shops and aftermarket parts makers gain competitive access but must still meet safety and emissions standards; the bill does not guarantee they will have the expertise or resources to compete effectively.
• Telematics data (wireless transmission of vehicle data) is subject to 'fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory' pricing, but the bill does not define those terms, leaving room for disputes and FTC enforcement actions.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Car owners gain the right to repair their vehicles at independent shops and with aftermarket parts, reducing repair costs and increasing choice. The bill does not restrict safety or cybersecurity—it explicitly preserves manufacturer protections for safety-critical systems and data security. Independent repair shops and parts makers also benefit from competitive access.

Who stands to gain

• independent repair shops and service facilities
• aftermarket parts manufacturers
• remanufactured parts suppliers
• diagnostic tool manufacturers
• salvage and junk yards
• vehicle owners (lower repair costs)

Named in the bill

Federal Trade Commission (FTC), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), motor vehicle manufacturers, motor vehicle dealers, independent repair facilities, aftermarket parts manufacturers, diagnostic tool manufacturers, automobile insurers

Where it stands

9 cosponsors: 7 Democrats, 2 Republicans.

• Apr 9, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• Apr 9, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

41 lobbying clients named this bill on 63 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $67,014,078 in lobbying spend. A filing names 7 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 99% of bills with at least one filing.

Ben Luján, the sponsor, reported $1,880,294 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $37,710,000 on 2 filings
• General Motors Company — $6,610,000 on 2 filings
• American Property Casualty Insurance Association — $3,540,000 on 2 filings
• Toyota Motor North America Inc (tma) — $3,483,687 on 2 filings
• National Association of Manufacturers — $2,730,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 22, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.