On December 17, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a final rule on junk fees that excludes dealerships and requires hotels and live event ticket vendors to include total pricing information upfront if a price is displayed.
The proposed junk fees rule stated dealers would be required to comply with the junk fees rule unless the FTC’s Vehicle Shopping Rule (VSR) and its related offering price and misrepresentations were finalized. The final junk fees rule excludes dealers, even if the VSR takes effect.
The final junk fees rule removes dealerships from the definition of a covered business and the rule only applies to hotels and live ticket vendors. NADA commented that the proposed junk fees rule could create different pricing standards in the marketplace for dealerships and other businesses selling the same product because dealerships could be subject to the VSR while other businesses would be subject to the junk fees rule.
The junk fees rule takes effect 120 days after publication in the Federal Register. As of this writing, the VSR is stayed and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has not ruled on the legal challenge to the VSR. NADA will continue to fight for a remedy to address the ill-conceived VSR rule, including working with the new leadership at the FTC and through legislation in Congress to deny FTC funding to implement and enforce the Rule.