A multi-state car dealer will pay $ 10 million to settle the Federal Trade Commission and Illinois allegations that they have smuggled in illegal charges for unwanted additions to their customers’ bills and to discriminate against black customers, the agency said Monday.
Oakbrook, Illinois-based North American Automotive Services Inc., which also does business with the Ed Napleton Automotive Group, denied the allegations in a statement.
The FTC said in a statement that eight of its resellers and the director general of two resellers in Illinois illegally incurred fees for unwanted add-ons such as payment insurance and paint protection.
The complaint said retailers would wait until the end of hours of negotiations before imposing fees on documents as long as 60 pages. It said they were often added after consumers specifically declined them or had confirmed prices that did not include them.
The complaint also accused dealers of discriminating against black consumers in financing vehicle purchases, charging about $ 1
90 million more in interest and paying $ 99 more for similar supplements than similar non-Latino white customers.The company said in a statement that “while we vehemently deny all crimes”, it decided to reconcile “to avoid disrupting an ongoing dispute with the government. As a result, we reluctantly decided that it was in our best long-term business interest to resolve these issues. . “
It also said, “This settlement is the result of a three-year process in which we gave full transparency to the government. Most of its claims were based on interpretations of statistical data and there were no actual findings of intentional error.
It also said that the “unproven allegations” related to eight of its 51 dealerships, and that other dealers not bearing the name Napleton were never included in the investigation.
Source link
