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 evaluate their menu-selling process when presenting voluntary protection products to customers. Because I've been getting more inquiries about menu selling lately, I thought it would be helpful to summarize the standards a dealership should adopt before presenting VPPs to customers and beneficial content for a menu.

As a starting point, you should know that there is no federal law that specifically requires dealerships to show the full cost of a VPP product in a menu. However, the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have shown significant interest in how things are disclosed to consumers, and those agencies have authority under federal law to determine when a practice is unfair or deceptive (and, in the CFPB's case, abusive). So, is it unfair, deceptive, or abusive to not disclose to a customer the actual cost of a product being purchased? Given the federal regulators' preference towards transparency and full disclosure, dealerships should adjust their menu-selling standards and practices to meet or exceed federal regulators' expectations.

Originally published in Tennessee Dealer News - Summer 2020.