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Anonymous
May 5, 2026 - 11:10

In March the FTC sent warning letters to 97 auto groups covering more than a thousand locations telling them their advertised prices must be the total price including all mandatory fees. Not a fine. Not a consent order. A letter. Which sounds mild until you understand that the Lindsay settlement came roughly six weeks after that letter went out to the industry and the Asbury administrative complaint is still live. The FTC is running a very deliberate escalation playbook. Letter first. Settlement next. The groups that received those letters and did not immediately audit their advertising and F&I add-on consent process are playing a very bad odds game. What the Lindsay case established is that named executives including the president and COO are personally on the hook in these settlements, not just the corporate entity. That changes the calculus for anyone who has been deciding this is a compliance problem rather than a personal liability problem.

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Anonymous
June 2, 2026 - 01:18

The personal liability piece in the Lindsay settlement is the part that should be keeping people awake. It is not just the corporation signing a consent order. Named executives with personal assets on the line. That is a different category of risk than anything the industry has faced from the FTC before. The groups that got letters in March and did not immediately bring in outside compliance counsel are making a calculation that will not look smart when the next enforcement action lands. The FTC is not fishing anymore. They know exactly which practices they are targeting and they have already established the precedent in the Lindsay case for how far they are willing to go.

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Anonymous
June 13, 2026 - 14:55

We got one of those 97 letters in March and our response was to forward it to outside counsel and wait. Six weeks later Lindsay settled with named executives personally on the hook and we still have not done a full audit of our F&I consent process or our advertising. I pushed for it. I was told we would deal with it when we needed to. I am tired of being the person in this building who understands what the FTC escalation pattern means and getting brushed off until there is a lawsuit with my GM's name on it.

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