In testimony before the U.S. Congress March 22, the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) expressed support for H.R. 3059, the “Access to Repair Parts Act” saying consumers would benefit from greater availability and competition in the automotive collision repair parts market.
The availability of aftermarket crash parts has had a moderating effect on the price of such parts sold by car companies for decades, according to Bob Passmore, PCI senior director of personal lines. PCI said H.R. 3059 will help ensure that automaker design patents will not be used in anticompetitive ways, and that aftermarket parts will help to keep auto repair and insurance costs down for consumers.
“At its core, this is a consumer issue,” says Passmore. “The costs of auto body repair are borne by consumers, either reflected in their insurance costs, or directly when they pay for repairs themselves.”
Since 2003, car companies have increasingly filed for design patents to protect not only the overall design of the vehicle, but also individual component parts of the vehicles they manufacture.
"Auto manufacturers justifiably use design patents to protect the overall design of their cars from the other car companies they compete with in the primary market," says Passmore, "but some manufacturers are also using them in an unjustifiable way – to keep competitors out of the market for replacement crash parts.”
PCI estimates that eliminating the competitive influence of even a small market share for alternatively supplied parts would result in more than $3 billion in increased insurance costs annually.
