contest the FTC complaint<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe will not allow the FTC to coerce fines from us or subject us to onerous requirements that negatively impact the car-buying experience for our customers, would not apply to others, and would place us at a competitive disadvantage in the industry. We are confident that we will prevail in the litigation,\u201d Hult said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dan Clara, Senior Vice President of Operations, also denied the FTC\u2019s claim that minority customers were charged more for protection products than other customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAsbury is committed to non-discrimination and has implemented policies, training, and monitoring to ensure that our dealerships comply with standards on fair lending and equal credit opportunity,\u201d Clara said. \u201cI am proud that Asbury is one of the few companies in the industry that has a Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer. In addition, the three dealerships in question are highly diverse, from the highest level of leadership to front-line staff workers, and in that way reflect the demographics of the guests they serve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FTC announced the complaint on Aug. 16, stating the three Dallas-Fort Worth area dealerships and general manager Ali Benli engaged in \u201cpayment packing,\u201d getting customers to consent to higher monthly payments for a vehicle and adding items to the sales contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe FTC will continue to crack down on illegal hidden fees and discrimination, which have no place at car dealerships,\u201d said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC\u2019s Bureau of Consumer Protection in a press release. \u201cLike the Combating Auto Retail Scams (CARS) Rule, today\u2019s action underscores our commitment to protecting consumers shopping for cars and leveling the playing field for honest dealers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FTC claims it received numerous complaints. Asbury countered stating that information received through a Freedom of Information Act request showed no consumer complaints about the McDavid dealerships from 2019 through spring 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The owner of three Texas dealerships has responded to the Federal Trade Commission\u2019s allegations of hidden fees for…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_appearance_grid":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-industry","8":"cs-entry","9":"cs-video-wrap"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}