been happening over the past couple of years. There have been allegations that each one of these dealership groups has essentially assessed fees that they were charging to consumers illegally. These enforcement actions are happening without the Rule. REGULATORS ALREADY HAVE MANY WEAPONS AT THEIR DISPOSAL One of the primary vehicles that the regulators can use is their ability to prosecute Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices. • The FTC, under section five of the FTC Act, has the ability to prosecute unfair and separate acts and practices. • The CFPB can do it under Dodd-Frank. • The states under their Consumer Sales Practices Act and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. They also have the ability to prosecute unfair and separate acts and practices. So those situations mentioned above would also be vehicle Shopping or CARS Rule violations. USING THE SAFEGUARDS RULE AS AN EXAMPLE The Safeguards Rule was established in 2003. In the 2000s, we started to see a lot of data breaches occur. The FTC started taking enforcement actions against businesses in response to these breaches. These enforcement actions reflected omissions like not having multi-factor authentication in place, encryption, or continuous monitoring. Businesses got in trouble for not providing employee training. The FTC kept building these omissions into their enforcement actions and into their orders and faulting them. Over time, the FTC revised the Safeguards Rule, establishing minimum standards. Now, for minimum standards, dealers are required to have multi-factor authentication, encryption and continuous monitoring, along with many other things. This parallels what we see progressing with the CARS Rule. The FTC is taking pains to outline the things that they consider already to be unfair and deceptive acts and practices. PUT YOUR DEALERSHIP ON A PATH TO COMPLIANCE To avoid exposing your dealership to multimillion-dollar settlements, take the proper steps to achieve and maintain advertising sales and finance compliance. KPA’s solution provides dealers with the tools they need to comply with the numerous federal and state laws and regulations that impact dealership advertising, sales and finance practices beyond the requirements within the Rule. It also provides consumers peace of mind, knowing that their dealership follows transparent best practices when selling or leasing their vehicles. Learn more about CARS Rule Compliance solutions at kpa.io. Please do not consider this as legal advice. If you have specific legal questions, reach out to your attorney so they can answer them. 18
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