On Tuesday, October 22, 2013, Judge Jed Beebe in the Santa Barbara County Superior Court denied Arturo Martinez’s motion for class certification against Santa Maria Ford for alleged DMV fee lumping violations under the Automobile Sales Finance Act (ASFA) and the Unfair Competition Law (UCL).

The National Association of Dealer Councel (NADC) featured the article Enforcing arbitration agreements: Unconscionability is still the battleground, but for how long?, by Christian Scali, in their June 2013 issue of Defender. In it he reviews the current state of laws governing pre-dispute arbitration agreements in California.

In the September 2013 edition of News Trax—published by the Auto Dealers Office Management Association (ADOMA)—you will find Christian Scali's article, titled Is your Red Flags Program up to date? In it he discusses the FTC's revised business guide on the Red Flags Identity Theft Rule, issued on June 12, 2013.

As those who read this blog regularly already know, courts have divided into two camps over the enforceability of contractual arbitration agreements. Both camps claim to have the same starting point: the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) public policy favoring arbitration, under which parties who contractually agree to arbitrate a dispute are absolutely bound to do so unless the agreement is clearly “unconscionable;” i.e., so unreasonable that it shocks the conscience.

In a press release issued earlier this week (September 3, 2013), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stated that it has entered into a proposed consent decree with two franchised automobile dealerships for allegedly deceptive online advertising; one in the Cleveland area and the other in the Baltimore area.

Offered the granting of a wish, many employers—especially those who are about to fire someone—might wish that their employees could not easily sue them. In MacDonald v. State of California (2013 WL 5422792), the California Court of Appeal last week went some way toward making that wish come true.

Uber is no longer just a German superlative; it is now also a high-end car service. Founded in San Francisco in 2009 as a small start-up, the company has already expanded to twenty-two metropolitan areas across the country, and twenty cities in Canada, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

There was a great article in the Wall Street Journal recently stating that non-compete litigation in this country has risen by over 60% in the last decade as more employees leave their employers to open their own businesses. And that's just court decisions.

On July 17, 2013, as reported in the California Auto Dealer Newsletter, the California Supreme Court denied the petition for review filed by Downtown LA Motors, LP in the case of Gonzalez v. Downtown LA Motors, LP.

On June 12, 2013, the FTC issued a revised business guide on the Red Flags Identity Theft Rule. Recently, the California New Car Dealers Association issued a reminder about the importance of updating your Red Flags Identity Theft Program.