SPEAKERS DISCUSS INDUSTRY ISSUES AT DAY 2 OF AAPEX

MEMA held its annual breakfast for its members and the media on Wednesday, Nov 6. at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas.

Paul McCarthy, president of MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers, began the session by addressing Right to Repair and the election’s potential impact on the efforts to pass it. In an interview before the press conference, McCarthy said, “We had bills written in both the House and the Senate, but of course, we didn’t make that crucial vote that would’ve sent it to the House floor. So now the focus has to be on 2025. We must pass the repair act in this new Congress, and we have to really focus on the things that we know. It is about educating the lawmakers so that when some of these arguments come up, they know enough about the issue.

“The other thing that we’ve heard from that committee staff is the power of our issue that we are a populist issue,” McCarthy added. “This is bipartisan. This grows across parties. This is really about the people—all of those people who own the 290 million vehicles in the U.S; all those people who need that to be supported.”

Other speakers included Ana Meuwissen, MEMA senior vice president of government affairs, who addressed the impact of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (of 1998) and the Class 7 exemption, which exempts diagnostic data from the act. Meuwissen said the exemption is supported by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.

Recently, MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers’ petition for a new exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)’s anti-circumvention provisions—which prohibit bypassing copyright protection systems—was officially accepted by the Register of Copyrights in the Ninth Triennial Rulemaking Proceeding under the DMCA.

The exemption will be in effect until October 2027. 

Vehicle operational data, including telematics data, is data a vehicle automatically generates, which includes information about speed, fuel consumption, faults, and other aspects of its operation. Telematics are vital to helping diagnose and prognose vehicle repair and service, which can increase consumer safety and reduce both repair costs and vehicle downtime.     

Chris Gardner, MEMA senior vice president, programs & technology, discussed the benefits of MEMA’s new member driven tech training hub. Click the link to learn more.