Right to Repair in 2026: What Auto Repair Shops Need to Know

The right to repair auto repair shops have spent a decade fighting for finally moved in Washington in 2026, just not the way most independents hoped. A federal bill cleared a House subcommittee, then lost its core data-access language in full committee. Massachusetts is still waiting on an appeals court. Maine rewrote its law and set a 2027 deadline. This article lays out where each piece stood as of October 2026, what vehicle data your shop can actually get today, and what to do about it; it is a working summary for shop owners, not legal advice.

Where the federal REPAIR Act stands after the May 2026 committee vote

The Right to Equitable and Professional Auto Industry Repair Act, H.R. 1566, was introduced in February 2025 by Representative Neal Dunn of Florida with bipartisan cosponsors. According to the Auto Care Association, the bill would guarantee owners and their chosen repairers equal access to vehicle data and diagnostic information, ban technological or contractual barriers that keep independents from servicing modern vehicles, let owners decide who may use their vehicle information, and direct federal agencies to write rules and police unfair practices. On February 10, 2026, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade agreed to send it to the full committee.

That is as far as the original text got. On May 21, 2026, the full committee instead approved H.R. 7389, the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act of 2026, by a 48 to 1 vote, as Autobody News reported. Rather than a direct data-access mandate, the bill codifies two existing memoranda of understanding, the 2014 agreement covering light-duty vehicles under 14,000 pounds and the 2015 agreement for heavy-duty trucks, and adds Federal Trade Commission enforcement authority over them. CollisionWeek noted the committee dropped the telematics access requirement that was the heart of Dunn's bill.

Two details from that markup, both reported by Autobody News, matter for shops. Representative Lori Trahan of Massachusetts warned the bill could expose her state's law to legal challenge; Chairman Brett Guthrie said it contains no override and committed, with Ranking Member Frank Pallone, to consult the Massachusetts Attorney General before a floor vote. And H.R. 7389 was headed to the floor inside the surface transportation reauthorization, which carried a September 30, 2026 deadline, with Guthrie promising continued negotiation on right to repair language. In plain terms, the federal outcome would at best lock in what independents already have under the MOUs, with a federal enforcer behind it. It would not open the wireless data stream.

Massachusetts: the law is on the books, the appeal is still pending

Massachusetts voters approved the Data Access Law on November 3, 2020. Per the Auto Care Association's summary, it requires, starting with model year 2022, a standardized open-access platform that delivers mechanical data to owners and the shops they choose through a direct connection, plus standardized access to onboard diagnostics without manufacturer authorization, and a notice to buyers about telematics and their right to share that data.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation sued to block it. According to Nelson Mullins, Judge Denise Casper dismissed the remaining claims in February 2025, the automakers appealed to the First Circuit (No. 25-1262), and the panel heard argument in February 2026, suggesting mediation and a technical fix for manufacturers' cybersecurity concerns. On February 25, 2026, the Massachusetts Attorney General declined, calling mediation likely to be "unproductive and dilatory." As of August 24, 2026, no decision had issued.

For a shop in Massachusetts, the practical effect is that the law exists, the state intends to enforce it, and manufacturers have been slow to deliver the platform it describes while the appeal hangs. For everyone else, this case is the template: whatever the First Circuit says about federal preemption under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act will shape every state law that follows.

Maine: a commission, a 2027 deadline and an amended lawsuit

Maine voters passed their own automotive right to repair initiative in November 2023 with 84 percent support, according to Ratchet+Wrench. The statute told the Attorney General to designate an "independent entity" to run secure access to vehicle data. Per Legal500, the entity was never created, the access provisions took effect January 5, 2025, and the Alliance for Automotive Innovation sued in federal court later that month. The case was stayed in July 2025 while the legislature worked on a fix.

The first fix, LD 1228, would have swapped the entity for a commission and given manufacturers two more years. Governor Janet Mills vetoed it on January 7, 2026, objecting to a telematics provision she described as a "finger on the scale in favor of auto manufacturers," as CollisionWeek reported. The replacement, LD 2211, was signed on April 13, 2026, according to BillTrack50's record of the bill. It creates a 12-member Motor Vehicle Right to Repair Commission to monitor compliance and handle complaints, requires fair-terms access to tools, parts, software and repair information for model year 2002 and later (working on off-the-shelf computers for model year 2018 and later), and sets a September 1, 2027 deadline for a standardized, owner-authorized telematics platform. Owners and authorized independent shops can sue over denied access.

The automakers have not gone away. Nelson Mullins notes that on August 14, 2026 Auto Innovators told the court it would file an amended complaint by October 2, 2026. So Maine shops have a clearer statute and a date to watch, with litigation still running alongside it.

Colorado and the state laws that do not cover cars

Colorado comes up in right to repair conversations because its laws are broad, but they are not automotive. Proskauer's summary of HB24-1121, signed May 28, 2024 and effective January 1, 2026, describes a law covering consumer digital electronics such as phones, laptops and appliances, expanding a 2023 law on agricultural equipment and powered wheelchairs. It bans "parts pairing" that blocks functional replacement parts, and it expressly excludes motor vehicles, along with EV charging infrastructure and several other categories.

Why mention it at all? Because the parts-pairing ban and the "fair and reasonable terms" standard are the kind of language the automotive side keeps borrowing, and because customers read headlines. When a Colorado customer asks whether the new law means you can now program their car's module, the honest answer is no, not that law.

The right to repair timeline at a glance

Right to repair in practice: what data access auto repair shops have today

Strip away the legislation and the day-to-day picture is more stable than the headlines suggest. The 2014 MOU, which the Auto Care Association describes as requiring manufacturers to give independents the same service information and tools they give franchised dealers, is what you use every time you log in to an OEM service information website. The MOU excluded telematics from the start, and that gap is what the state laws and the REPAIR Act were written to close.

Security-related work runs through a separate channel. NASTF, the National Automotive Service Task Force, operates the Vehicle Security Professional registry. According to NASTF's support site, a registered VSP is a qualified technician, mechanic or locksmith who can perform key programming, code ordering and immobilizer resets, and who must run a business with a U.S. taxpayer ID, hold the required local licenses, and primarily serve vehicle owners directly. NASTF lists the VSP account at $435 for two years; its Assisted Immobilizer Reprogramming account has no signup cost, with the first five jobs each year at $45 apiece and the rest free.

The channels you have are durable, and the ones you do not have are still being litigated. Budget for the subscriptions and the VSP credential as normal operating costs.

How to prepare your shop for the next twelve months

1. Audit your information access List every make you service and whether you hold a current OEM service information subscription, a validated scan tool, and a J2534 device. Gaps here cost you jobs today, regardless of what Congress does.
2. Register at least one VSP If you turn away key or immobilizer work, the NASTF credential at $435 for two years pays for itself quickly. Put the renewal date on the calendar with your other licenses.
3. Document what you could not access When a repair stalls because a function is dealer-only or data is locked behind telematics, write it down in the work order notes: vehicle, function, date. Shop records like these are what trade associations use in testimony, and they explain sublet charges to customers.
4. Watch three dates The First Circuit decision in the Massachusetts case, the fate of H.R. 7389 in the surface transportation bill, and Maine's September 1, 2027 platform deadline. Each one changes what you can promise a customer.
5. Keep vehicle histories complete Whatever data channel opens, your value is the record of what you did to each car. A shop management system that stores inspections, photos and repair history per vehicle, as GarageHub does, means you are not dependent on the manufacturer's record of the car.

Prepare customers too. Owners increasingly ask whether an independent can "see" their newer car. A plain answer works: you have the same repair information and tools the dealer has for most jobs, security work goes through a vetted national registry, and the remote data the car sends to its maker is still off-limits to everyone except the maker. That is honest, and it sets you up well for the day the rules change.

What to do this week

Pull your OEM subscription list and your NASTF status, and fix whatever is lapsed. Then read our companion piece on connected-car data and where access stands for the technical side of telematics, and ADAS calibration for the fastest-growing category of work that depends on this access. If you want to track which jobs you sublet and why, tracking job profitability shows how to make that visible. The law will keep moving; your access to the cars in your bays should not have to wait for it.