Tesla Slammed With 2 Class Action Suits Alleging Unfair Repair Practices

Elon Musk-led Tesla Inc TSLA has been slapped with two class action lawsuits.

What Happened: Two lawsuits were filed against the EV maker in the federal court in San Francisco on Tuesday and Wednesday, alleging customers were forced to pay supra-competitive prices and suffer exorbitant wait times to maintain and repair their Tesla vehicles as a result of Tesla's monopolization of the market.

As per the lawsuit documents, first noted on Reuters, Tesla owners have only the option of scheduling service at Tesla for any service or repair activities, unlike buyers of traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines.

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Tesla has prevented independent service providers from entering the Tesla Repair Services market with its anticompetitive conduct, the lawsuit said. As a result, at the consumer end, vehicle owners suffer lengthy delays and pay exorbitant charges for parts and repairs.

The lawsuit called for “dismantling” Tesla’s monopoly of the Tesla Repair Services market and making Tesla repair manuals and diagnostic tools available to individuals and independent repair shops at a reasonable cost. Impacted customers must also be reimbursed by Tesla, it added.

EV players like Rivian RIVN and Lucid Motors LCID also impose similar restraints, the lawsuit added.

The two cases are Virginia Lambrix v Tesla Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 3:23-cv-01145; and Robert Orendian v. Tesla, No. 3:23-cv-01157.

Last month, Tesla shareholders sued the automaker and Musk, alleging that both overstated the effectiveness and safety of the company’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies.

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