National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) will try a second time, on Friday, to host a webinar with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and gain answers to questions about the 97 warning letters sent to automobile dealers in March.
NADA scheduled the second session after the FTC refused to answer questions in the previous webinar with 4,000 participants. Chris Mufarrige, Director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, will join the NADA webinar at 3 p.m. ET.
For context: In the first webinar, the FTC notified NADA 10 minutes before it would not address questions about the enforcement activity and the letters sent to dealers about the possible deceptive advertising and sales practices.
Dealers left the webinar without answers about enforcement from the agency, including advertising doc fees with the price.
Clarification is needed for dealers, U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) pointed out during his April 15 segment on Daily Dealer Live.
“The goal we can agree with. We want to have clean ads. We want to have transparent pricing. We don't want to surprise our clients. And we want to protect the integrity of the dealer model.”
Bernie Moreno
U.S. Senator
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Moreno added that it is his understanding that the 97 warning letters were sent to the largest generators of complaints to federal agencies.
Also on yesterday’s live show was NADA President Mike Stanton.
What they’re saying: “[It was] very frustrating. We had over 4,000 people on that webinar, and probably more listening in. A complete waste of everybody's time,” said Stanton about the first webinar. “We've got a different team from the FTC that's going to be with us 3 [p.m.] Eastern this coming Friday… We were told that we would get our questions answered and that anything that they can't get to, they will follow up with via FAQ.”
Bottom line: Dealers should receive clearer direction on advertising requirements and disclosures during the webinar to stay in compliance with Section 5 of the FTC rules, including doc fees.
“We already have an exhaustive laundry list of questions. I would be shocked if we don't come out of this webinar with say 80% to 90% of that,” Stanton said.
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