Sept. 16, 2022—A recent House Small Business Subcommittee hearing was held regarding Right to Repair.
According to a blog post from Make Car Repair Your Choice (a Car Coalition project), the "Right to Repair and What it Means for Entrepreneurs" hearing featured a discussion about why repair restrictions are harmful. This hearing was put on by the Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Underserved, Agricultural. and Rural Business Development. A bipartisan group of lawmakers heard from people who are seeing the impact firsthand, including Gay Gordon-Byrne, the Executive Director of the Digital Right to Repair Coalition.
“I live in a community where repair is kind of in our DNA, and we need to be able to do it–and that’s not just consumers, that’s also all the businesses in town," Gordon-Byrne said. They face the same problems and they need the same options to be able to fix their stuff.”
Subcommittee Chairman Jared Golden (D-ME) cited patent abuse and data limitations as components that manufacturers utilize in an effort to mitigate competition. Additionally, Justin Rzepka, Executive Director of the CAR Coalition, released a statement after the hearing, which was held on Sept. 14 in Washington D.C. and on Zoom.
“Today’s hearing underscores the need for federal solutions, such as the SMART and REPAIR Acts, to ensure consumer choice, combat rising prices and provide competition in the auto repair industry," Rzepka said in the statement. "It’s time for Washington to act on these bipartisan bills to empower consumers and business owners who have voiced a need for more car repair options.”
