Dealer Antitrust Lawsuit Against Carfax reaches 537 Dealer Plaintiffs
I just provided an update in my lawsuit against the Federal Government on belhalf of the rejected Chrysler dealers, so I thought I would also provide a status rpeort on my mass action lawsuit against Carfax. We filed the case 11 months ago with 124 dealers and are now up to 537. That number grows daily as more dealers join.
The newest development to report is that I brought in Berger & Montegue(B&M) as co-counsel in this lawsuit. Why did I do that ? B&M is the most respected antitrust law firm in the country. Unless a case is worth several hundred million dollars they will not get involved. They are perhaps most well know for having achieved the highest anti-trust recovery in US history -- in a lawsuit against Visa/Master Card which recently settled for $7.4 Billion.
Over 100 dealers joined the lawsuit in the past 30 days having heard of the recent alliance with B&G. It was just publised today in Auto Dealer News and in F&I & Showroom magazines. So I expect many more will join soon.
Although the case alleges an abuse of monopoly power by Carfax it stems from the dislike by dealers of the business model of Carfax, which is to advertise to consumers that dealers cannot be trusted and then overcharge dealers for the monthly contracts and produce reports that are not very reliable and create conflicts between dealers and their customers. The suit alleges that Carfax pays off key players in the auto marketplace not to do business with it competitors, a glaring violation of the anti-trust laws for a monopolist to abuse its market power.
I will keep you updated. Regards, Len Bellavia
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