Va. Board warns dealers to control their advertising data
Virginia dealers were warned at the March Motor Vehicle Dealer Board meeting last week of the perils of the skinny feed.
This doesnt mean you need to worry about eating too little and contracting one of those teenage wasting diseases. The term refers to information sent from one data aggregator to another, often without the dealers knowledge. That means you might have a new or used car listing on a site you didnt know about. Data may get dropped along the way (making it a skinny feed) sometimes important data, such as advertising disclaimers required by the Federal Trade Commission.
Dealers are responsible for complying with all regulations any time a car listing or other advertising appears under the dealerships name in the commonwealth, even though the dealer may not have known about the listing.
Another risk: A third-party site might run the listing after the car has been sold. Attorney Michael Charapp of Charapp & Weiss recommends that dealers review their contracts with their suppliers. The contract should limit what the supplier may do with the dealer data.
Download Bulletin PDF