Germany's Highest Court Rejects Stellantis Appeal, Cementing Independent Repairers' Data Rights

On October 6, 2025, Germany's Federal Court of Justice—the Bundesgerichtshof (BGH), the country's highest civil court—rejected Stellantis's final appeal in the vehicle data-access lawsuit originally brought by Carglass Germany and ATU. Belron celebrated the outcome as a "landmark victory for consumers and the European automotive aftermarket." The ruling ended a multi-year legal battle with a definitive finding: OEM-imposed barriers preventing independent repairers from accessing vehicle diagnostic data are illegal.

The BGH ruling followed earlier decisions by the Regional Court of Cologne in 2024 and the Higher Regional Court of Cologne in January 2025, each of which had ruled against Stellantis. With the BGH's October rejection of the final appeal, the legal pathway in Germany was exhausted. The principle that independent repairers have a right to access vehicle data necessary for performing repairs—without artificial OEM-imposed barriers—was now definitively established in German law, reinforcing the European Court of Justice ruling from October 2023.

The practical significance for auto glass shops worldwide is that the case established a durable legal precedent. As vehicles become increasingly dependent on software and secure data architectures, independent repairers' ability to access OBD-II data, gateway credentials, and recalibration procedure data from OEM servers will determine whether they can perform complete ADAS calibrations. Legal rulings that establish data-access rights make it harder for OEMs to justify future restrictions—in Europe and, potentially, in countries whose legislatures look to EU legal developments as a model.

For U.S. shop owners and their trade associations, the BGH ruling provided fresh international legal authority for right-to-repair advocacy. State-level right-to-repair bills that had been introduced in Massachusetts, New York, and other states in recent years cited similar principles; a German supreme court ruling endorsing those principles strengthened the policy argument considerably.

Belron CEO Carlos Brito characterized the ruling as ensuring a "level playing field" and called it critical for maintaining customer choice and competitive pricing in the automotive aftermarket. The company indicated it would continue engaging with the European Commission on regulatory frameworks governing vehicle data access.

The October 2025 BGH ruling may prove to be the most consequential single legal decision for the global independent automotive repair industry in the 2025 calendar year—with implications that will be cited and built upon in legal and legislative proceedings for years to come.