An Illinois car dealership group is being fined $10 million for allegedly adding illegal fees onto bills, as well as discriminating against black customers by charging them more for financing.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Napleton Automotive Group located in the Chicago suburb of Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, is accused of adding extra fees to customers’ purchases without their consent. The agency filed a deceptive practices complaint against the group, alleging that the group charged at least $70 million in illegal fees dating back to 2017.
FTC consumer protection director Samuel Levine says the $10 million will hold Napleton accountable. This is the highest amount of fines a dealership has ever paid to the FTC, and $9.9 million of the money will go directly back to consumers who were affected.
The so-called “Junk Fees” ranged from hundreds of dollars to well over a thousand, and included services and products such as GAP (guaranteed asset protection) insurance and paint protection. The unwanted “add-ons” were sneaked in at the end of a lengthy purchase contract, itself over 60 pages long. The complaint alleges that eight out of the group’s 51 dealerships were found to illegally add fees.
In addition to overcharging customer contracts, the dealership group is also accused of discriminating against black customers by charging them more for financing than other customers. For auto loans, Napleton would charge black consumers on average $99 more for add-ons, as well as an extra $198 a month in interest. Napleton charged one unnamed buyer from Arlington Heights an additional $4,000 in add-on fees, according to the FTC.
The group has agreed to settle the bill, although it still denies the accusations. Tilden Katz, a spokesman for Napleton told the Arlington Daily Herald that “Most of its (the complaint’s) claims were based on interpretations of statistical data and there was no actual finding of intentional wrongdoing.” It says it agreed to settle “to avoid the disruption of an ongoing dispute.”