GNYADA November 2016 Newsletter

GNYADA Discusses 2017 Legislative Agenda in Statewide Meeting of Dealer Associations 2

issues, prior to the start of the Session in January.

bear the responsibility nor the financial costs for defects caused by manufacturers. Finding a solution to minimize dealers’ liability will be a high priority. Vicarious Liability: Currently, dealers are legally responsible in the event that a customer gets in an accident in a convenience or loaner vehicle that the dealership has provided. In many cases, dealers are required to provide these vehicles, per their franchise agreements. We will continue looking into legislative approaches that remove dealers’ liability. Brokers: Building on the successful adoption of a law (A10081 Abbate / S6623 Golden) increasing penalties for deceptive practices by auto-brokers during the 2016 Session, the associations intend to continue pushing for further reforms related to auto- brokers in 2017.

GNYADA recently met with the NYS Automobile Dealers Association, ENYCAR, and the regional associations from Rochester, Syracuse, and Buffalo to develop an agenda for the 2017 Legislative Session, based on issues confronting auto dealers throughout New York. President Mark Schienberg, Chairman Nick Toomey, Immediate Past Chairman Robert Vail, and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Miller, traveled to Syracuse, NY, to attend on behalf of GNYADA. The highly productive meeting laid out a blueprint that will help Associations prepare to advance an agenda during the upcoming Legislative Session. Having this jointly agreed upon agenda in place allows the associations to work with dealers to set up meetings with local legislators and begin discussing these

The following items were discussed:

Doc Fee Increase: We were last successful in increasing the doc fee in 2008. Since that time, the fee has remained stagnant at $75. Dealers deserve to recapture their costs for providing this state service to consumers. Recalls: Recalls remain an important issue for all New York dealers, with the Attorney General’s Office having issued subpoenas throughout the state, which are still open and pending. The New York City DCA has issued similar subpoenas as well. GNYADA’s position on this matter is shared by other Associations in New York State: Manufacturers are responsible for defective vehicles, and franchised dealers should not (ADA), based on claims that their websites are unusable for people with vision disabilities. Websites must be configured in a way that allows visually impaired users to utilize software that reads these pages aloud to them. There were 45 website accessibility lawsuits filed in 2015, according to the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA), and the trend has continued in 2016. This has caught the attention of the Department of Justice, which is working on releasing regulations and specific standards that retailers will

Is Your Website Usable for the Visually Impaired?

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need to meet. (Those standards may not be released until 2018.)

In the meantime, it is important for retailers (including dealerships) to assure that their websites comply with the standards of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which make sure websites are accessible to users with various disabilities. This can reduce the chance of facing an ADA lawsuit.

Retailers are facing an increased number of lawsuits related to the Americans with Disabilities Act

The WCAG guidelines can be found at: www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association • www.gnyada.com

The Newsletter • November 2016

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