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California New Car Dealers Join Opposition Efforts Against the So-called California Consumer Privacy Act

Contact: Jenny Dudikoff
Phone: 916-441-2599

SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, the California New Car Dealers Association, the nation’s largest state automobile dealer association, representing more than 1,200 franchised new car dealers throughout California, announced that its members are opposing the so-called California Consumer Privacy Act.

CNCDA is joining the opposition campaign, The Committee to Protect California Jobs, based primarily on two factors that would have significant impacts on its members and California consumers:

  1. The Reversal of 2004’s Proposition 64:
    1. In 2004, CNCDA helped lead a well-funded, hard fought ballot measure, Proposition 64. Proposition 64 was designed to limit California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL) by curtailing claims known as “shakedown” lawsuits.
    2. Since Proposition 64’s approval, by 59% support of California voters, the UCL requires that a plaintiff must suffer a demonstrable injury and a financial loss due to an unfair, unlawful, or fraudulent business practice.
    3. Under this proposed ballot measure, the crux of Proposition 64 would be undermined. The initiative would allow attorneys and consumers to sue businesses even if a consumer cannot prove they have suffered any loss or been injured in any way, no harm needs to be determined. In short, for a mere technical violation of the initiative, a California business would be strictly liable and would face repeated lawsuits, exactly the opposite of what California voters decided 14 years ago. 
  1. Consumer Safety:
    1. It is of critical importance that California’s franchised new car dealers have the ability to communicate with manufacturers regarding warranty and recalls and the related service of vehicles that are sold through local dealerships to California consumers.
    2. Recent data shows that there are over 57 million open vehicle recalls on the roads in the U.S.—or one out of every five vehicles—with California having one of the highest recall rates in the country.
    3. Under this proposed ballot measure, if a consumer opts out of data sharing when purchasing a vehicle at a new car dealership, dealers would be expressly prohibited from communicating with manufacturers about warranty and recall issues regarding the consumer’s vehicle. The impact on motorist safety could be severe and the initiative could endanger all Californians whether drivers, cyclists or pedestrians.
    4. This initiative would allow unwitting consumers the ability to eliminate ANY sharing of consumer information with businesses that consumers use is reason alone why this measure must fail at the ballot box this November.

“California’s new car dealers are seriously concerned with how the proposal we’ve dubbed ‘Return of Shakedown Lawsuits and Jeopardization of Consumer Safety’ initiative will have devastating impacts on the retail automotive market for both new car dealers and their customers. While we agree that consumer privacy is important and should be taken seriously, we don’t agree that it should come at the expense of safety,” said California New Car Dealers Association president, Brian Maas. “There are countless instances where new car dealers must share consumer data with manufacturers to inform the consumer of timely information pertaining to their vehicle, especially recalls. Why would we want to restrict data sharing when it comes to consumer and vehicle safety?”

CNCDA joins a coalition made up of a number of companies and organizations in its opposition to the ballot measure.

While the Secretary of State has not yet certified the initiative for the November 2018 ballot, the campaign has until June 18th to turn in its signatures and is expected to obtain the 365,880 signatures needed to qualify.

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About CNCDA

The California New Car Dealers Association is the country’s largest state association of franchised new car and truck dealers representing nearly 1,200 dealer members.  Last year California’s franchised new car dealers sold more than 2.5 million new and used cars and trucks.

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