FTC Accuses Asbury Automotive of overcharging Black and Latino clients

Three of Asbury Automotive Group’s Texas dealerships are accused by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of charging Black and Latino clients more than other customers and adding services to their contracts without getting their permission.

The FTC claims that at Asbury’s David McDavid Ford dealership in Fort Worth and its Honda dealerships in Irving and Frisco, Texas, up to 75% of consumers were charged without their consent for services like insurance, service contracts, and protective coatings. There have been cases where clients have blatantly refused these services or were misled into believing they were required. In other instances, the dealerships asked for no permission from the customers at all.

The FTC further claims that, compared to non-Latino White customers, Black customers paid, on average, USD 298 more and Latino customers, USD 214 more for the same add-on products.

Asbury Automotive Group has declared its intention to fight the lawsuit and refuted the accusations. Based on data gathered through a Freedom of Information Act request, the business emphasised that it found no customer complaints against the McDavid dealerships between 2019 and late spring of 2024.

After the case was approved by all five FTC commissioners, Asbury is now the target of this legal action. Nevertheless, one of the two Republican commissioners, Andrew Ferguson, voiced reservations about classifying discrimination as an unfair business practice based on a different case that was concluded on Thursday. In spite of this, Democratic commissioners and FTC Chair Lina Khan contended that leaving discriminatory behaviour out of the definition of unfair practices would absolve businesses that operate in this way of responsibility.