A Session Unlike Any Other
Thank you for all of your support and your constant efforts to help us. This Session has been a completely unique experience. We are already thinking about how we can employ some new strategies with our dealer partners since it appears that the factories and JM family will do whatever they need to do to shut down our franchise-related legislation. We are going to have to work together after Session to unite all major dealer organizations.
Thanks to our leadership team FADA Chairman Allen Turner, Legislative Chairman Ted Serbousek and each of YOU that have written to your legislators or participated in some other meaningful way. As always thanks so much to John Forehand and David Ramba for their daily help with bills and bill movements. Our other lobbyists hired by Jonathan and SFADA have also contributed a great deal to killing and amending bills - thanks Ron LaFace, Megan Fay, Tracy Mayernick, Frank Mayernick and Russ Klenet.
Our next Board meeting will be in Orlando at the Rosen Shingle Creek on May 13th. Dealer members are always welcome as guests at our Board meetings. Please let me know if you wish to attend. We have so much to discuss, such as:
- Lucid's entry into Florida
- Rivian selling into Florida from out-of-state
- The pending application of Polestar as a separate line-make
- The continued moves by our OEMs to direct business to online reservation platforms
- The impact of new service platforms like maintenance and warranty work outside of your stores
- Over the air updates by factories
- Potential suits against OEMs who do not allocate vehicles to Florida dealers
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Florida's Privacy Bill - Update
Great news! The data privacy bill has improved greatly, at least on the Senate side. The private right of action has been removed on the Senate Privacy bill in its last Senate committee stop. Other amendments were made as well, including a delayed effective date to July 1, 2022, which we had asked for. This changes the implementation date to after next year's Session.
There is also a new amendment to exempt businesses unless the business buys, sells or shares the information of 100,000 or more consumers a year. We have lots of questions about how this will apply to you as we recognize you may be organized under several different corporate structures. We are asking for clarification in hopes of understanding the bills application to you.
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Other Bill Tracking
A bill designed to pull all state and local sales and service from our dealers in favor of a new mass purchasing plan by the state appears to be dead for the Session, thanks to dealer members Alan Wildstein, Hampton Graham, Chad Barron and lobbyists Frank and Tracy Mayernick.
FADA was very active in our opposition of a bill to create a right to repair farm vehicles. The bill sought to give consumers a right to repair farm equipment rather than taking their vehicles and equipment to their authorized dealer. This was a "slippery slope" bill that could have easily shifted focus to autos and efforts to dismantle your service business.
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Toll Violations
For some time now dealers have had issues with registration stops when buyer registrations are halted by unpaid toll violations. The amount of the tolls due is usually unknown and there is not a payment processing system for the dealer to unlock the registration stop at DMV. FADA is working on a solution this Session but also DMV is anticipating adding a payment vendor to allow these stops to be lifted at the point of sale in your stores.
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THANK YOU 2021 CAR-PAC Donors
Allen Turner Auto Group, $16,000
Gunther Motor Group, $15,000
Tampa New Auto Dealers Association, $15,000
Alan Jay Automotive Group, $10,000
Gettel Auto Group, $10,000
Panama City Auto Group, $10,000
Phil Smith Automotive Group, $10,000
Sonic Automotive Group, $10,000
Bert Smith Automotive Group, $5,000
Dimmitt Auto Group, $5,000
Gator Automotive Group, $5,000
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Kelly Auto Group, $5,000
Lehman Auto Group, $5,000
Stingray Chevrolet, $5,000
Lynch Auto Group, $3,000
Red Hoagland, $3,000
Castriota Chevrolet, $2,500
George Moore Chevrolet, $2,500
Preston Hood Chevrolet, $2,500
Bob Steele Chevrolet, $1,000
Kisselback Ford, $1,000
Nissan of Melbourne, $1,000
Regal Automotive Group, $1,000
Rick Matthews Buick GMC, $1,000
Southport Truck Group, $1,000
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Supreme Court Rejects Broad TCPA Definition
Last week, the Supreme Court in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid et al. (Slip Op., Case No. 19-511 (April 1, 2021) resoundingly resolved this dispute, ruling unanimously in favor of a more restrictive interpretation of “autodialer.” While this decision will not mean the end of all TCPA litigation, it should finally provide some certainty for businesses and telemarketers and allow them to employ more modern techniques to interact with consumers. Dealers should consult with their legal counsel to determine the impact of this decision on their telephone systems and telemarketing efforts. Read more
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Distributed April 12, 2021
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