As you know, the pandemic shelter-at-home orders forced the closing of dealerships across the country. I suspect that the new ways dealerships have developed to continue to move the metal have inspired some dealerships to...more
8/17/2020
/ Audits ,
Best Management Practices ,
Car Dealerships ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Purchase Price ,
Shelter-In-Place ,
Social Distancing ,
Transparency ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
One of the largest recovery associations in the country recently proposed implementation of a COVID-19 surcharge and a new set of post-pandemic policies and also issued a white paper setting forth uniform standards for...more
7/15/2020
/ American Recovery Association ,
Civil Liability ,
Compliance ,
Compliance Costs ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Creditors ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Personal Property ,
Personal Protective Equipment ,
Repossess ,
Surcharges ,
White Papers ,
Workers' Compensation Claim ,
Workplace Injury ,
Workplace Safety
On June 22, the CFPB formally launched a pilot advisory opinion (AO) program (Pilot AO Program) that would allow entities seeking to comply with regulatory requirements to submit a request to the Bureau for an opinion where...more
6/25/2020
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Advisory Opinions ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Federal Pilot Programs ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Public Comment ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Statutory Requirements
The Federal Trade Commission's Cooling-Off Rule has been around since 1972 (it became effective in 1974), but generally has been a non-issue for dealers until the Coronavirus pandemic when dealers were forced to conduct...more
6/24/2020
/ Automotive Industry ,
Automotive Loans ,
Best Practices ,
Car Dealerships ,
Compliance ,
Contract Negotiations ,
Contract Termination ,
Cooling-Off Rule ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Lenders ,
Remote Sales Transactions ,
Salespersons
This is my third article in as many months about remote sales, a topic that is suddenly hot, hot, hot with dealers and finance companies during the COVID-19 pandemic because consumers have been restricted from coming to a...more
I know it's been a long month, but you may remember that I wrote about the Federal Trade Commission's cooling-off rule in early April. That rule is just one of the many laws and regulations that a dealer should review and...more
5/12/2020
/ Automotive Industry ,
Business Closures ,
Car Dealerships ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
DMV ,
Identity Theft ,
Installment Agreements ,
Off-Site Sales ,
Online Advertisements ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Red Flags Rule ,
Risk Assessment ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Signatures ,
State Regulators
Let's say you want to drive the vehicle a customer is interested in buying to that person's home, let the customer see and test-drive the car, negotiate the price of the car, present and offer F&I products, and then have the...more
4/21/2020
/ Automotive Industry ,
Business Closures ,
Buyers ,
Car Dealerships ,
Cooling-Off Rule ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Risk Assessment ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Sales Restrictions ,
Salespersons ,
Sellers ,
Social Distancing ,
Statutory Violations
On January 24, the CFPB issued a Policy Statement to provide clarification on how it will apply the "abusiveness" standard in supervision and enforcement matters. As you may know, the Dodd-Frank Act provides that the CFPB may...more
I frequently hear creditors complain about issues they face when trying to confirm that one of their customers has and will maintain the property insurance required by the retail installment contract. For instance, some...more
One of my all-time favorite sayings is “actions speaker louder than words.” Or, in other words, what you do has a stronger impact on people than what you say. I can think of no better application of that maxim than to the...more
I may be a little old-school on this, but I still like to pick weeds in the yard. It's good exercise, makes the yard look nicer, and gives my brain a little down time.
There's a particularly pernicious type of weed in our...more
I just finished up a very active conference season. I’ve been on the “conference circuit” as some would say, since early January. Being on the conference circuit has enabled me to re-connect with friends, colleagues, clients...more
10/7/2019
/ Automotive Industry ,
Automotive Loans ,
Car Dealerships ,
Compliance ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Advertising ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Repossess ,
Risk Assessment ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Trump Administration ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
I'm frequently asked by dealer clients to speculate about whether they have their compliance house in order simply based on what DMS provider, underwriting or scoring system provider, or forms provider they use. "I'm using...more
8/6/2019
/ Customer Information ,
Customer Privacy ,
Data Processors ,
Data Security ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
FTC Act ,
Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act ,
Safeguards Rule ,
Third-Party Service Provider ,
Vetting
Do you truly know what the repossession agents you’ve assigned to repossess one or more of your cars for you are doing? I’m hearing more and more about a very disturbing practice in the repossession services industry that,...more
6/28/2019
/ Agents ,
Automotive Loans ,
Car Dealerships ,
Class Action ,
Default ,
GPS ,
Invasion of Privacy ,
Misdemeanors ,
Penal Code ,
Repossess ,
Stalking ,
Tracking Systems ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices ,
Vicarious Liability ,
Without Consent
Do you have too much positive goodwill in the community and marketplace? Need to shed some so you can pump up your bad boy image? How would you like to engage in some illegal conduct that will result in claims of invasion of...more
Heard any good lawyer jokes lately? Having been in practice for almost 25 years, I've heard quite a few from friends and clients. How about, "What's the difference between a vulture and a lawyer? . .. The vulture doesn't get...more
6/20/2019
/ Automotive Loans ,
Car Dealerships ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
False Documentation ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fraud ,
FTC Act ,
Identity Theft ,
Restitution ,
Settlement ,
Tax Evasion ,
Unfair Pricing ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites