Opinion of Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona delivered on 4 May 2023.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:2023:385
• Date: 04 May 2023
• Celex Number: 62022CC0319
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)

Provisional text

OPINION OF ADVOCATE GENERAL

CAMPOS SÁNCHEZ-BORDONA

delivered on 4 May 2023 (1)

Case C‑319/22

Gesamtverband Autoteile-Handel e.V.

v

Scania CV AB

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Landgericht Köln (Regional Court, Cologne, Germany))

(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Market for motor vehicle repair and maintenance information services – Regulation (EU) 2018/858 – Independent operators – Information easily accessible in a machine-readable format that is capable of being electronically processed – Vehicle identification number (VIN) – Protection of personal data – Regulation (EU) 2016/679 – Conditions for lawful processing of personal data – Article 6(1)(c))

1. The EU legislature aims to ensure competition in the motor vehicle repair and maintenance sector, within the internal market, in such a way that vehicle manufacturers do not monopolise (by themselves or through their authorised dealers and workshops) the supply of those services.

2. For that purpose, Regulation (EU) 2018/858 (2) requires automotive manufacturers to provide ‘independent operators’ with unrestricted, standardised and non-discriminatory access to information on certain vehicle systems, equipment and tools and their repair and maintenance.

3. The application of Regulation 2018/858 (or some of the regulations which it amends) has led to disputes between vehicle manufacturers, on the one hand, and independent operators, on the other. Certain requests for a preliminary ruling come from proceedings in which an entity (3) whose members are responsible for 80% of the turnover of the motor vehicle parts aftermarket in Germany has been involved. (4)

4. In this reference for a preliminary ruling, the Landgericht Köln (Regional Court, Cologne, Germany) has submitted three questions which concern, in turn:

– the content of the information which manufacturers must provide to independent operators (does it include all repair and maintenance information, within the meaning of Article 3(48) of Regulation 2018/858, or only information relating to spare parts?);

– the manner and format in which manufacturers must provide that information;

– the obligation to supply independent operators with vehicle identification numbers (‘VINs’), (5) in conjunction with Article 6(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679. (6)

5. As directed by the Court, I shall confine my Opinion to the third question.

I. Legislative framework

A. Regulation 2018/858

6. Recital 50 reads:

‘Unrestricted access to vehicle repair and maintenance information, via a standardised format that can be used to retrieve the technical information, and effective competition in the market for services providing such information, are necessary to improve the functioning of the internal market, in particular as regards the free movement of goods, the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services. …’

7. In accordance with recital 52:

‘In order to ensure effective competition in the market for vehicle repair and maintenance information services, and in order to clarify that the information concerned also covers information which needs to be provided to independent operators other than repairers, so as to ensure that the independent vehicle repair and maintenance market as a whole can compete with authorised dealers, regardless of whether the vehicle manufacturer gives such information to authorised dealers and repairers or uses such information for the repair and maintenance purposes itself, it is necessary to set out the details of the information to be provided for the purposes of access to vehicle repair and maintenance information.’

8. Recital 62 is worded as follows:

‘Whenever the measures provided for in this Regulation entail the processing of personal data, they should be carried out in accordance with [the GDPR] …’

9. Article 3 contains the following definitions:

‘…

(45) “independent operator” means a natural or legal person, other than an authorised dealer or repairer, who is directly or indirectly involved in the repair and maintenance of vehicles, and include repairers, manufacturers or distributors of repair equipment, tools or spare parts, as well as publishers of technical information, automobile clubs, roadside assistance operators, operators offering inspection and testing services, operators offering training for installers, manufacturers and repairers of equipment for alternative-fuel vehicles; it also means authorised repairers, dealers and distributors within the distribution system of a given vehicle manufacturer to the extent that they provide repair and maintenance services for vehicles in respect of which they are not members of the vehicle manufacturer’s distribution system;

…

(48) “vehicle repair and maintenance information” means all information, including all subsequent amendments and supplements thereto, that is required for diagnosing, servicing and inspecting a vehicle, preparing it for road worthiness testing, repairing, re-programming or re-initialising of a vehicle, or that is required for the remote diagnostic support of a vehicle or for the fitting on a vehicle of parts and equipment, and that is provided by the manufacturer to his authorised partners, dealers and repairers or is used by the manufacturer for the repair and maintenance purposes;

(49) “vehicle on-board diagnostic (OBD) information” means the information generated by a system that is on board a vehicle or that is connected to an engine, and that is capable of detecting a malfunction, and, where applicable, is capable of signalling its occurrence by means of an alert system, is capable of identifying the likely area of malfunction by means of information stored in a computer memory, and is capable of communicating that information off-board;

…’

10. Article 61 (‘Manufacturers’ obligations to provide vehicle OBD information and vehicle repair and maintenance information’) states:

‘1. Manufacturers shall provide to independent operators unrestricted, standardised and non-discriminatory access to vehicle OBD information, diagnostic and other equipment, tools including the complete references, and available downloads, of the applicable software and vehicle repair and maintenance information. Information shall be presented in an easily accessible manner in the form of machine-readable and electronically processable datasets. Independent operators shall have access to the remote diagnosis services used by manufacturers and authorised dealers and repairers.

Manufacturers shall provide a standardised, secure and remote facility to enable independent repairers to complete operations that involve access to the vehicle security system.

2. Until the [European] Commission has adopted a relevant standard through the work of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) or a comparable standardisation body, the vehicle OBD information and vehicle repair and maintenance information shall be presented in an easily accessible manner that can be processed with reasonable effort by independent operators.

The vehicle OBD information and the vehicle repair and maintenance information shall be made available on the websites of manufacturers using a standardised format or, if this is not feasible, due to the nature of the information, in another appropriate format. For independent operators other than repairers, the information shall also be given in a machine-readable format that is capable of being electronically processed with commonly available information technology tools and software and which allows independent operators to carry out the task associated with their business in the aftermarket supply chain.

…

4. The details of the technical requirements for access to vehicle OBD information and vehicle repair and maintenance information, in particular technical specifications on how vehicle OBD information and vehicle repair and maintenance information are to be provided, are laid down in Annex X.

…

11. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 82, amending Annex X to take account of technical and regulatory developments or prevent misuse by updating the requirements concerning the access to vehicle OBD information and vehicle repair and maintenance information …’

11. Point 6.1 of Annex X (‘Access to vehicle OBD information and vehicle repair and maintenance information’) stipulates:

‘…

Information on all parts of the vehicle, with which the vehicle, as identified by the VIN and any additional criteria such as wheelbase, engine output, trim level or options, is equipped by the vehicle manufacturer and that can be replaced by spare parts offered by the vehicle manufacturer to its authorised repairers or dealers or third parties by means of reference to original equipment (OE) parts number, shall be made available, in the form of machine readable and electronically processable datasets, in a database that is easily accessible to independent operators.

This database shall comprise the VIN, OE parts numbers, OE naming of the parts, validity attributes (valid-from and valid-to dates), fitting attributes and, where applicable, structuring characteristics.

…’

B. Regulation No 19/2011

12. Point 2 of Article 2 (‘Definitions’) includes the following definition:

‘“vehicle identification number” (VIN) means the alphanumeric code assigned to a vehicle by the manufacturer in order to ensure proper identification of every vehicle’.

13. In Annex I (‘Technical requirements’), Part B (‘Vehicle identification number (VIN)’), point 1.2 provides:

‘The VIN shall be unique and unequivocally attributed to a particular vehicle.’

C. The GDPR

14. Under Article 4(1), ‘“personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (“data subject”); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification...