SPONSOR: Hovis
This bill provides that owners of products purchased or used in Missouri and independent repair providers shall have the right to access the same diagnostic and repair information that manufacturers supply to authorized repair providers. Product owners shall also have the right to purchase service parts documentation, and tools from manufacturers in the same manner and time as those parts are given to authorized repair providers. A "product" is any farm machinery, construction machinery, or forestry machinery.
Product owners and independent repair facilities shall have the right to purchase all diagnostic repair tools from manufacturers on fair and reasonable terms. For equipment with electronic security lock or other security-related function, the manufacturer must make available to owners and independent repair providers, on fair and reasonable terms, any special documentation, tools, and parts needed to disable the lock or function and to reset it when disabled in the course of diagnosis, maintenance, or repair of the equipment.
Products sold for security-related purposes may not be programed to exclude diagnostic, service, or repair methods to reset a security- related electronic function. Manufacturers are not legally responsible for the content and functionality of such diagnostic repair tools so long as the manufacturers comply with the rest of the bill, the bill does not require the divulgence of a trade secret.
However, no manufacturer shall be required to provide repair information or service parts to a product owner if the product is still covered by a repair or replacement warranty.
The bill also provides a complaint provision for consumers and independent repair providers for violations of the bill and is punishable by a $10,000 fine per violation. The Attorney General is required to enforce its provisions.
This bill is similar to HB 975 (2021).
Statutes affected: