Official Journal of the European Union

Series C

C/2024/427

(Case C-319/22, (1) Gesamtverband Autoteile-Handel (Access to vehicle information))

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Market for motor vehicle repair and maintenance information services - Regulation (EU) 2018/858 - Approval and market surveillance of repair and maintenance information services for motor vehicles and their trailers, and of systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles - Article 61(1) and (2) - Annex X, point 6.1 - Independent operators - Information ‘easily accessible in the form of machine-readable and electronically readable data sets’ - Regulation (EU) 2016/679 - Article 6(1)(c) - Processing of personal data - Legal obligation on car manufacturers to make vehicle identification numbers (VIN) available to independent operators)

(C/2024/427)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Gesamtverband Autoteile-Handel eV

Defendant: Scania CV AB

Operative part of the judgment

1.The second sentence of Article 61(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/858 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on the approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles and their trailers, and of systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles, amending Regulations (EC) No 715/2007 and (EC) No 595/2009 and repealing Directive 2007/46/EC,

must be interpreted as meaning that the obligation to present the information referred to in that paragraph in an easily accessible manner, in the form of machine-readable and electronically processable datasets, covers all ‘vehicle repair and maintenance information’, within the meaning of point 48 of Article 3 of that regulation, and not only the information relating to spare parts referred to in point 6.1 of Annex X to that regulation.

2.The second sentence of Article 61(1) and the second subparagraph of Article 61(2) of Regulation 2018/858

must be interpreted as meaning that:

it does not require vehicle manufacturers to make vehicle repair and maintenance information accessible by means of a database interface allowing automated search with downloading of results, but requires them to make that information available to independent operators in files the format of which serves for direct electronic processing of the sets of data contained in those files;

read in conjunction with Article 61(4) of that regulation and the third subparagraph of point 6.1 of Annex X thereto, it requires vehicle manufacturers to establish a database making it possible to search for information on all the original parts of the vehicle on the basis not only of the vehicle identification number (VIN) but also of the additional means provided for in that provision.

3.Article 61(1) of Regulation 2018/858, read in conjunction with Article 61(4) and with point 6.1 of Annex X to that regulation,

must be interpreted as meaning that it establishes a ‘legal obligation’, within the meaning of Article 6(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation), on car manufacturers, to make the VINs of the vehicles which they manufacture available to independent operators, as ‘controllers’, within the meaning of Article 4(7) of that regulation.

(1) OJ C 340, 5.9.2022.

ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/427/oj

ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)