S&P Global Mobility and TrueCar announced new solutions Monday to assist dealers with price transparency in their marketing, as the FTC warning letters to nearly 100 dealer groups continue to intensify industrywide scrutiny on pricing.
Industry-wide tool: S&P Global Mobility laid out plans for its FreeSync, a platform that gives dealers one place to update their fee schedule for vendor and agency partners, independent of any technology partners. The free tool for dealers is meant to streamline efforts.
“Dealers shouldn’t have to chase updates across a dozen vendors every time their fee structure changes, and consumers shouldn’t encounter different numbers depending on where they shop. The infrastructure to fix this should exist at the industry level, not at the dealership level—and we’re in a unique position to provide it,” said Aaron Baldwin, President, Sales Solutions at S&P Global Mobility in a press release.
“Opening FeeSync to the entire industry at no cost is the right thing to do for our dealer partners, for the allied industry, and ultimately for the consumer. We’re proud to serve as a trusted, agnostic third party in making it happen.”
S&P Global Mobility plans to begin offering the product to automotiveMastermind and CARFAX customers, and then open it to dealers.
Update for transparency: TrueCar, meanwhile, announced updates to its platform to ensure that advertised vehicle prices comply with FTC requirements, including all-in pricing.
The example shared by TrueCar shows the listed price with all fees included.
Below the listed price is a “Dealer fees/add-ons included” link, which opens to list the fees that were added to the list price.
The dealer will enter the fees and add-ons into the dealer portal, and they will populate into the price.
“Another option that will be implemented in the future is that TrueCar will receive the dealer fees via the inventory feed, and then it will be automatically displayed relative to the dealer’s inventory displayed on TrueCar’s website,” Scott Painter, Founder and CEO of TrueCar, told CDG.
Meeting the requirements: As pointed out by the FTC in its webinars with NADA and NIADA, the advertised price, including fees, is the cost for any customer to drive away with the vehicle.
Dealers will be able to negotiate with consumers for a lower price.
“TrueCar will provide consumers with a transactional price that is good for both the dealer and the car buyer upfront, without negotiation. It’s up to the dealer on how they want to negotiate that further with the customer,” Painter said.
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Adding to that: TrueCar receives inventory feeds from dealers up to four times per day to track changes and remove vehicles sold from the platform. The FTC stressed the need for dealers to update their advertised inventory in a timely manner to avoid marketing unavailable vehicles.
Painter said the updates with the platform will help dealers stay compliant with the FTC regulations and provide exclusive opportunities for select customers.
“TrueCar is ensuring mandatory dealer fees and accessories are included in the pricing,” Painter said. “TrueCar is using third-party market data to audit advertised prices to ensure they are FTC-compliant. TrueCar is providing ‘offer of one pricing’ to eligible affinity customers only after they’ve been verified for additional savings that are not available to everyone.”
“An ‘offer of one’ is a personalized, limited-time price for qualified shoppers. Because this is a private, personalized offer, dealers can offer a lower price to one customer without needing to lower the price for everyone else.”
The takeaway: As the FTC and state regulators continue to scrutinize advertising, dealers will need to look for tools and options to stay compliant and build trust with their customers in simple, efficient ways.
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