After the FTC’s second round of conversations with dealers, the direction is getting clearer. But for many retailers, the details are still taking shape in real time.
Phil Gill of Tom Gill Auto Group put it plainly after tuning in.
“I would say they gave strong direction on making sure doc fees were in pricing and that federal law is going to trump state law here,” Gill said.
That aligns with the core message from the FTC’s April 17 webinar with NADA: the most prominent advertised price should reflect the full price a customer can actually pay, outside of required government fees.
As one FTC official put it, “If you’re going to display a price for a car, aside from government fees, you need to be sure a consumer can walk into the dealership and write a check for that price.”
That “total price” standard is the center of everything. It includes dealer-imposed fees like doc fees, must be the most prominent number in the ad, and must be available to every customer.
Don Hall, President and CEO of the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association, reinforced that takeaway in a LinkedIn post, calling out total price, prominence, and universal availability as the FTC’s baseline.
