Penalty Amount
$100,000
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that used car dealer Midwest Car Search and its owner Scott Spiczka agreed to reform their business practices and pay $100,000 to resolve allegations that they violated Minnesota's Used Car Law and other consumer-protection laws through five deceptive practices, including fake 'certified' claims, illegally added vehicle service contracts, denied warranties, missing Buyer's Guide disclosures, and operating under an unregistered trade name that exploited Spanish speakers. The settlement resolves the AG's April 23, 2024 lawsuit and makes permanent a prior court order requiring the dealer to cease the deceptive conduct. Note: this is a consumer-protection enforcement action, not a privacy matter, so violation-type mapping to the privacy taxonomy is approximate.
Midwest Car Search and Scott Spiczka must pay $100,000 — stated to be the maximum they can pay based on financial information showing they lack assets for full customer refunds — and permanently reform their business practices. The reforms build upon and make permanent an earlier court order requiring them to cease the five forms of deceptive conduct. The settlement is memorialized in a consent judgment filed with the court.
Although this is a consumer-protection rather than privacy enforcement action, in-house teams at dealerships or companies selling through dealer networks should review customer-facing purchase agreements and add-on product contracts to ensure vehicle service contracts are added only with clear, affirmative consumer consent and itemized pricing; verify that 'certified' designations used in advertising and in vehicle sourcing or certification vendor agreements match actual certification standards; confirm warranty terms and mandatory disclosures (e.g., Buyer's Guide) comply with state used-car law requirements and appear in all sales documents, including foreign-language translations used in marketing to Spanish-speaking consumers; and audit trade name/DBA registrations. Vendor and F&I product-provider agreements should contain compliance warranties, representation accuracy covenants, and indemnification for misrepresentation and consumer-protection claims.
Entity
Midwest Car Search
Industry
Automotive"Midwest Car Search and its owner Scott Spiczka"
"pay $100,000 to resolve allegations"
"The $100,000 payment represents the maximum amount they can pay"
"Used Car Law and other consumer-protection laws"
"misrepresented that its used cars are certified when they are not"
"illegally added expensive vehicle service contracts"
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