Regulatory Impacts on Digital Solutions for Parts | Part 1: Right-to-Repair

Disclaimers: (1) this article is a conversation starter, meant to generate as well as answer questions, (2) I am not an attorney and this article is not legal advice, (3) the sands are shifting and this article is a snapshot.

Target audience: providers of service-parts digital solutions used by dealerships – and the other stakeholders in this market including OEMs, dealership networks and the investment community.

Preface

This is the first in a four-part series on legislation, litigation and regulation impacting the digital solutions used by OEMs and dealers to run their replacement parts businesses – in increasingly significant ways and degrees.  Four ‘movements’ with regulatory implications for dealer solutions that emerged in the new millennium:   

Right to Repair (R2R)

Substances of Concern (SoC)

Privacy (and data ownership/control)

Accessibility

Excluded from this article and from the entire series are long-time ‘legal’ considerations for dealer systems such as IP protection and product liability as well as the current strife and litigation over integration between specialist dealer systems and DMS platforms.

Why this is Important. The impact of R2R on parts and service revenues is huge – potentially shifting many billions ($) between parts suppliers. Separately, impacts on OEM and dealer systems are potentially large and vary substantially by solution type. Significantly, the burden falls relatively more heavily on smaller solution providers, favoring the established dealer solution providers (DSPs). OEMs, solution developers and their investors benefit from understanding potential costs, risks and opportunities R2R and the movements present.