{"id":5323,"date":"2024-10-30T11:49:21","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T16:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/?p=5323"},"modified":"2024-10-30T11:51:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T16:51:10","slug":"5323-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/5323-2\/","title":{"rendered":"FTC announces refunds to dealership’s customers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Federal Trade Commission announced<\/a> Tuesday it is sending $1 million in refunds to Rhinelander Auto Center\u2019s customers allegedly harmed by junk fees and discriminatory practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The checks are being sent to 7,531 consumers of the Wisconsin dealership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dealership agreed to a court order<\/a> in October 2023 to pay $1.1 million for the refunds along with being required to receive informed consent before charging add-ons and establish a fair lending program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint from the FTC and Wisconsin Department of Justice stated the dealership charged customers fees for add-ons without their consent. It was also alleged the dealership discriminated against American Indian customers, charging more for financing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement to the Wisconsin Examiner<\/a> and other outlets, Rhinelander denied the allegations but agreed to the settlement to avoid costly litigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRhinelander Auto Group respects all of its customers, and we are committed to treating all customers with dignity,\u201d the owners said through a spokesperson. \u201cWe totally reject that our people \u2013 many of whom are long-term members of the local community \u2013 would engage in the practices alleged. That\u2019s not who we are, and there is a great deal of evidence to reinforce the fact that Rhinelander Auto Group and its employees are ethical, decent, and very good people. Nonetheless, to avoid lengthy and costly litigation, we reluctantly agreed to a voluntary resolution to conclude the matter. The agreement includes no admission of wrong-doing, and it requires the company to pay a forfeiture; upgrade its compliance, credit, and other administrative policies; and expand its employee training efforts,\u201d the Rhinelander statement in the Wisconsin Examiner read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a separate settlement<\/a> with the FTC and the State of Wisconsin, Rhinelander\u2019s former owner agreed to a\u00a0permanent restraining order barring them from promoting, marketing, selling and financing vehicles. They will also pay $100,000 to refund customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday it is sending $1 million in refunds to Rhinelander Auto Center\u2019s customers…\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":[3,39],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-industry","8":"category-compliance","9":"cs-entry","10":"cs-video-wrap"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5323","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=5323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5323\/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=5323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}