--- title: "Car Dealers Don’t Want the Feds Interfering With Their Markups" description: "The FTC wants dealers to give car buyers more information about what they're actually paying for and intends to clamp down on alleged abuses." date: "2022-07-18" modified: "2022-07-18" authors: - name: "Peter Holderith" job_title: "Contributor" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/peter-holderith" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/car-dealers-dont-want-the-feds-interfering-with-their-markups" categories: - "Car Buying" - "News" --- # Car Dealers Don’t Want the Feds Interfering With Their Markups ![]() *\Getty\* The National Automobile Dealer Association challenged proposed Federal Trade Commission [rules]() regarding deceptive car sales this month and said dealers haven't had enough time to review the potential rules. The FTC, citing [consumer outcry](), sees several trouble areas it wants to address with new regulations: primarily bait-and-switch schemes, fraudulent junk fees, and surprise junk fees. It also wants to require [car dealers]() to provide “full upfront disclosure of costs and conditions” of a transaction. The regulations intend to “ban all products without benefit” and prohibit “misleading pricing advertising.” Also noteworthy is a provision enabling the FTC to “seek financial redress for customers,” as [*Automotive News*]() reports. The NADA has a laundry list of complaints regarding the proposed guidelines, which are currently available for public comment. The dealer association said dealers have not been given enough notice of the proposed rules,and existing law already enables the FTC to go after dealers for very similar offenses. It also alleges the quality and quantity of complaints the FTC has received⁠—which the agency uses as a basis for these new proposals—don't justify the crackdown. The news comes as [supply chain constraints]() have upended normal market conditions for auto dealers and car buyers alike. “Market adjustments” are [the hot button topic]() right now, and while those (or at least a lack of transparency around ADM charges) [are addressed in the "bait-and-switch" section of the FTC's announcement](), it's mainly useless add-on items like "nitrogen filled tires" or special undercoating that the FTC is targeting for a total ban. The NADA’s Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Paul Metrey calls the justification for the new rules, "woefully inadequate." The FTC proposal notes it’s received more than 100,000 complaints of shady dealer practices each year for the past three years, although Metry claims this is only a fraction of a percent of all car sales. Just the same, he says these complaints are difficult to verify. The agency also cites data is gathered from consumers in 2011 following the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, which the NADA also disputes the relevance of. At the time, the FTC did little with the information it gleaned from holding a series of roundtables on the car buying process. Now, it's using the data as a justification to move forward with more stringent regulations. The FTC claims regulations are designed to give consumers more information about the [car-buying process]() and protect them from alleged predatory practices by dealers. The NADA claims it will cost the industry a tremendous amount of money and do little if anything to protect consumers. The text of the regulations is subject to change following the public comment period, which ends on September 12. *Got a tip? Send us a note: tips@thedrive.com* ## Author Peter Holderith is a former staff writer for The Drive. He enjoys covering the regular news cycle, writing reviews, and hunting down long features on obscure pieces of automotive history. ### Author social links [LinkedIn]() [Twitter]()