What an intermediary intends to do shapes the OEM licence

A technical-information publisher asks an OEM for four things: access to repair and diagnostic information, delivery in a usable technical format, continuing updates, and the right to incorporate that information into a multi-brand product.

It arrives as one request, but it is not simply asking, “Can we access the information?”

To respond well, the OEM also needs to understand what the intermediary intends to do with the information, who will ultimately use the product or output, where the service will operate, how the information will be integrated and updated, and what rights and technical support are required.

That is the practical starting point:

An intermediary request is primarily an OEM licensing and operating-model question. The fact that similar information may also be supplied under statutory repair-information frameworks does not automatically determine the intermediary’s rights, permitted uses or commercial terms.

Approached this way, the task is less about classifying the request against a legal category and more about describing the intended service clearly enough to license it.

WHAT MATTERS

• Start with the product or service the intermediary intends to provide, not with the label “intermediary”.
• Work backwards from that service to the information, users, territory, delivery, rights and controls required.
• Do not treat Part IVE as a general intermediary licensing mandate; the current statutory scheme and a commercial intermediary licence are different questions.

Start with the intended service

“Intermediary” is an industry description rather than a single legal category. In practice it can include:

• technical-information publishers;
• data aggregators;
• diagnostic-tool manufacturers;
• remote-service providers;
• software or platform providers; and
• other businesses operating between OEM information sources and the repair or service market.

One business may perform several of these functions at once, so the label matters less than what the organisation actually does. A few practical questions usually establish that:

• What product or service does the intermediary provide?
• Which OEM information does it need?
• Who will receive or use the resulting product or service?
• In which territory will it operate?
• Will the intermediary use the information directly, or supply it through another provider?
• What processing, integration or updating is required?

The answers describe an operating model. That model, rather than the word “intermediary”, is what the licence needs to reflect.

Define the information

“All repair data” or “all diagnostic data” is too broad to license well. Before designing a response, the OEM should identify what is actually needed, which may include:

• specific information categories;
• vehicle coverage;
• model years or variants;
• source systems;
• diagnostic or protocol data;
• repair and maintenance information;
• update requirements; and
• live-system dependencies, where relevant.

This is an operational mapping exercise: what is requested, where it is held, and which vehicles and systems it covers. A clear information map makes every later question—use, recipients, delivery and rights—easier to answer.

Receiving information and using it in a product are different questions

Supplying information is only part of the arrangement. Depending on the service, the intermediary may need to structure, map, normalise, integrate, update and present OEM information, or make it available to workshops through another product or platform. Those uses should be understood explicitly rather than assumed from the fact that information has been supplied.

Intended use matters because an intermediary may, for example:

• provide workshop repair information;
• support diagnostics;
• create a multi-brand database;
• provide a remote service;
• integrate OEM information into another software product;
• supply information through an API;
• create derived outputs; or
• support AI-assisted retrieval.

The task is not to decide in the abstract what is or is not permitted. It is to understand the intended operating model so the licence can describe it clearly, including who will ultimately use or receive the output.

That last point is worth making explicit. The recipient may be the intermediary itself, workshops, subscribers, another software provider, an API customer, or another authorised recipient. Onward use or onward supply should be understood and agreed rather than assumed.

Delivery and rights need to describe the same operating model

Once the information and intended use are clear, delivery and rights should describe the same service. In practice this covers:

• territory;
• brands and vehicle scope;
• users;
• delivery method;
• interface or API;
• update frequency;
• technical dependencies;
• support arrangements; and
• provider dependencies.

Depending on the service, the intermediary may need rights to receive, use, normalise, integrate, update, present and process OEM information, and—where agreed—to supply information or outputs onward. These are not automatic entitlements. They are issues the OEM and intermediary may need to address in the licensing arrangement so that the rights granted match the operating model actually being supported.

Keep statutory repair-information access separate from the intermediary licence

Australia’s Motor Vehicle Information Scheme, in Part IVE of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, provides statutory access rights to Australian repairers and scheme registered training organisations. It does not currently establish a general direct OEM-facing access right for organisations merely because they operate as intermediaries.

An intermediary may separately fall within another defined statutory role because of the activities it performs, but that is a question of the specific circumstances rather than a general intermediary rule. The Australian Government has also consulted on possible direct intermediary access through its 2026 right-to-repair discussion paper. Those proposals are not current law.

The practical implication is that the OEM should not start from the assumption that Part IVE either creates or resolves the intermediary licence. The commercial arrangement should still be designed around the intermediary’s intended service, information requirements, users, territory, delivery and rights, with legal advice obtained where the statutory position needs to be determined.

Other jurisdictions can provide context, not the Australian answer

Other jurisdictions have addressed intermediary access and use more explicitly, which is a useful reminder that the approach can differ by framework. In ADPA and Gesamtverband Autoteile-Handel v Peugeot and PSA, Case C-390/21, the Court of Justice of the European Union read the access required under Article 61 of Regulation (EU) 2018/858 as including processing and use of repair and maintenance information for technical-information publishers’ aftermarket activities.

That is a European position in its own setting. It should not be assumed to produce the same result in Australia, where the arrangement should be considered on its own terms.

Before progressing an intermediary request

1. What product or service is the intermediary providing?
2. What precise OEM information is required?
3. What will the intermediary do with that information?
4. Who will ultimately use or receive the product, service or output?
5. Which territories, brands, vehicles and systems are involved?
6. How will the information be delivered, updated and supported?
7. What rights and controls may be needed to support that operating model?

If commercial terms are discussed, they are usually clearest when they reflect the actual scope, technical delivery, support, service quantity and rights being agreed, rather than a single generic figure.

Conclusion

An intermediary licence works best when it starts with the intended service and works backwards to the information, rights, delivery arrangements and controls needed to support it.

That gives the OEM and intermediary a clearer basis for agreeing what will be supplied, how it may be used and how the arrangement will operate in practice.