VA Dealer Board Declines to Take Further Action on Jury Verdicts
At its regular bi-monthly meeting in September, the Virginia Motor Vehicle Dealer Board (MVDB) considered two cases that had involved jury verdicts finding deceptive or fraudulent practices by dealers. MVDB deliberated about the imposition of civil penalties as a result of these verdicts.
It was concluded that even though the jury verdicts found the dealers liable in civil actions for damages, MVDB still had the authority to look behind the verdicts to judge the actions of the dealers themselves. Once those actions were closely examined, however, it was determined that further sanctions by MVDB and civil penalties were not called for.
In other notable actions, MVDB addressed the following issues:
àIncreased training requirements for dealer operators. MVDB had started an administrative process act procedure for creating regulations on this issue, and determined to try and take quicker action without creating regulations. Board staff was directed to consider ways in which the existing test can be strengthened to better test the knowledge of applicants. It was felt that if the test was more stringent, the applicants would see the need for more and better training prior to taking the test.
àAdvertising. MVDB considered an advertising campaign in which dealers represented that they owned the finance company, or owned the bank, and discussed general guidelines for making these claims. It was observed that the goal of the advertising regulation is to compel dealers to advertise candidly and truthfully. Consequently, for a dealer to say that it owns a bank, the claim must be true. Similarly, for a dealer to say it owns a finance company, that must be true. And if a dealer is to advertise that it owns the bank or the finance company, instead of a bank or a finance company, the dealer must be prepared to show that it does a substantial amount of business with that finance company or bank because the representation will suggest to customers that this is the case.
MVDB set November 8 as the date of its final meeting in 2004.
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