On September 4, 2024, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law an amendment to New York’s warranty reimbursement statute, N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 465, requiring manufacturers to compensate dealers for labor using the...more
The administrative challenge brought by the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) and another trade association against the Combating Auto Retail Scams (“CARS”) Trade Regulation Rule, issued last year by the Federal...more
8/22/2024
/ Automotive Industry ,
Automotive Loans ,
Car Dealerships ,
CARS Rule ,
Commercial Litigation ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FTC Act ,
Motor Vehicles ,
Rulemaking Process ,
State Attorneys General ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
On Thursday, August 15, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Arizona Attorney General announced a $2.6 million settlement to resolve claims that Coulter Motor Company used deceptive online advertising to lure...more
8/20/2024
/ Automotive Industry ,
Automotive Loans ,
Car Dealerships ,
CARS Rule ,
Commercial Litigation ,
Consumer Fraud ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
State Attorneys General ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
A federal court in Wisconsin recently granted a motion to dismiss all claims in a putative multi-district class action against motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson, asserting claims that the OEM’s warranty violated the...more
Trade associations representing independent repair facilities have become strong advocates for expanding right to repair laws to increase member access to vehicle telematics data. These efforts have created uncertainty for...more
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced on Thursday, May 23, that they are expanding their search for businesses using “roll up” strategies to consolidate...more
5/30/2024
/ Acquisition Agreements ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Popular ,
Public Comment ,
Public Health ,
Request For Information
On April 26, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced it had finalized changes to modernize the Health Breach Notification Rule (the “HBNR”) by clarifying its applicability to health and wellness apps and other...more
5/7/2024
/ Breach Notification Rule ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Digital Health ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
PHI ,
Popular
On April 18, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), Justice Department (“DOJ”), and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) launched an online reporting portal, HealthyCompetition.gov, for the public to...more
By any measure, the world has changed vastly since we issued our first Commercial Litigation Outlook in 2020. We are now on our fourth installment of providing insights and flagging trends for what to expect in the coming...more
2/16/2024
/ Arbitration ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Banks ,
Class Action ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Commercial Court ,
Commercial Litigation ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Copyright ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Machine Learning ,
Merger Agreements ,
Patents ,
Trademarks
On January 18, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it was staying the effective date of its Combating Auto Retail Scams Trade Regulation Rule (the “CARS Rule”) pending resolution of an administrative challenge...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On January 22, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that the 2024 threshold for applying the size-of-parties test of the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act will increase from $111.4 million to...more
1/26/2024
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Corporate Sales Transactions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Merger Controls ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
The Clayton Act ,
Threshold Requirements
On Friday, December 22, 2023, FCA US LLC, the manufacturer of Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram vehicles, among others, scored the latest in a series of victories for automakers over claims by consumers that “destination charges”...more
1/8/2024
/ Actual Delivery ,
Automotive Industry ,
Car Dealerships ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Manufacturers ,
Motor Vehicles ,
OEM ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Retail Market ,
Service Charges ,
Supply Chain
After more than a year of review, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on December 12, 2023 launched its much-anticipated final rule targeting misleading advertising and sales tactics by new car dealers. First proposed in the...more
12/14/2023
/ Advertising ,
Auto Lease ,
Automotive Industry ,
Car Dealerships ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Electric Vehicles ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fees ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Hidden Fees ,
Material Misrepresentation ,
Motor Vehicles ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Retail Sales
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade association representing U.S. automakers and other manufacturers, announced on July 11, 2023 that it had entered into an agreement with trade associations representing...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) recently joined a majority of other courts in holding that the Graves Amendment, 49 U.S.C. § 30106 – which generally protects rental car companies from being held vicariously...more
In a June 13, 2023 filing in the Alliance for Automotive Innovation v. Campbell case pending in Massachusetts federal court, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave notice that it had sent a letter to...more
On June 1, 2023, the Massachusetts Attorney General published the Massachusetts Vehicle Telematics System Notice that new car dealers in Massachusetts must now provide to purchasers of model year 2022 or later vehicles if...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) continues to focus on the automotive and related industries, with the FTC announcing on March 24, 2023 that it had entered into an agreement settling claims against operators of a...more
Newly-elected Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell gave notice this week that effective June 1, 2023 her office intends to begin enforcing amendments to the state’s Right to Repair Law. The amendments,...more
The Ninth Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of a putative consumer class action challenging a manufacturer’s “destination charge” as an undisclosed and deceptive “vessel for profit” in violation of California and New...more
A recent motion for preliminary approval of a class action settlement filed in federal court in Georgia will bring to a close claims asserted on behalf of a class of Porsche owners for a purportedly botched over-the-air...more
On February 3, 2023, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it was withdrawing three “outdated” antitrust enforcement policy statements related to healthcare markets. “After careful...more
Welcome to the third annual installment of Seyfarth Shaw’s Commercial Litigation Outlook, where our nationally recognized team provides insights about litigation issues and trends to expect in 2023. The continuing global...more
In a January 11, 2023 op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, President Joe Biden urged “Democrats and Republicans to come together to pass strong bipartisan legislation to hold Big Tech accountable.” He warned that the...more
1/24/2023
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Automotive Industry ,
Biden Administration ,
Big Tech ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Data Collection ,
Data Management ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Motor Vehicles ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform
On October 18, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a settlement resolving allegations that Passport Automotive Group, a Maryland-based automobile dealer group, packed junk fees into the cost of the vehicles it...more