Lawsuits for Generic Auto Parts

Consumers wanted auto insurance companies to use original parts, instead of generic ones, so they started suing the car insurance companies to get them to use them. It turns out that the courts agreed with them.

A county court in Missouri just awarded $17 million to residents from American Family Mutual Insurance Company, because they were using aftermarket auto parts. The court said that the auto insurance company was using inferior parts when they were repairing damaged vehicles. The car insurance company says that they don’t use after market parts on any safety related parts like air bags, is appealing the verdict.

A judge with the International Trade Commission saw fit to rule in favor of the Ford Motor Company who is claiming that generic imports of auto parts infringes on their patents. The judge found that some were not an infringement, but that others were. If the ruling sticks, as this was just preliminary, it could affect the way auto insurers use generic parts to repair damaged cars.

The U.S. Supreme Court just refused to hear an appeal from the plaintiff in a case involving State Farm where the Illinois Supreme Court had found that they were not using aftermarket parts for auto repairs, and that this was not a breach of the policies the auto insurance company had with their policyholders. This enables the auto insurance company to use generic parts to continue repairing vehicles.

Car insurance companies are trying to use generic parts so that they can keep down policy prices, but consumers seem to be split as to what is the right thing to do when it comes to original vs. generic parts.

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