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Tesla is facing a pair of class action lawsuits that accuse the company of monopolizing maintenance and spare parts for its vehicles.
The pair of lawsuits, filed in federal court in San Francisco this week instruct Tesla to design its cars in a way that discourages owners from doing repairs themselves.
A Tesla showroom in Santa Monica, California, U.S., Friday, Jan. 13, 2023. (Photographer: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The new lawsuits accuse the electric vehicle maker of causing “exorbitant wait times” for drivers who might otherwise have gone to an independent repair shop.
The lawsuit asks Tesla to make its repair manuals and diagnostic tools “available to individuals and independent repair shops at a reasonable cost.”
Tesla Model Y electric vehicles in a lot at the Tesla Inc. Gigafactory in Gruenheide, Germany, Saturday, January 21, 2023. (Liesa Johannssen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“Tesla needs to open up its ecosystem and allow competition for Tesla maintenance [vehicles] and the sale of parts,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Matthew Ruan of Freed Kanner & Millen.
The proposed class action lawsuits include Tesla owners who have paid for repairs or parts in the past four years. Neither lawsuit specifies an amount, but Ruan said damages could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
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FOX Business has reached out to Tesla for comment.
Reuters contributed to this report.