Bill Text: NY A04066 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Requires motor vehicle dealer franchisors to fully compensate franchised motor vehicle dealers for warranty service agreements.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 74-25)
Status: (Passed) 2024-09-04 - signed chap.301 [A04066 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-A04066-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4066--B Cal. No. 112 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY February 9, 2023 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. BURGOS, SILLITTI, GALLAGHER, FAHY, BRAUNSTEIN, CLARK, FALL, SEPTIMO, MAMDANI, RIVERA, DURSO, MILLER, LUNSFORD, DARLING, SANTABARBARA, DeSTEFANO, J. A. GIGLIO, SMITH, K. BROWN, RAMOS, LAVINE, McMAHON, JACOBSON, SHIMSKY, CUNNINGHAM, SHRESTHA, L. ROSENTHAL, THIELE, DE LOS SANTOS, MEEKS, McDONOUGH, WILLIAMS, COLTON, DINOWITZ, HEVESI, GUNTHER, BURKE, TAPIA, COOK, STERN, WALKER, WEPRIN, BENEDETTO, SIMONE, JEAN-PIERRE, NORRIS, JENSEN, BEEPHAN, EPSTEIN, SLATER, GRAY, CONRAD, McDONALD, SEAWRIGHT, BURDICK, BORES, BRABENEC, HYNDMAN, ZACCARO, AUBRY, STIRPE, REILLY, DILAN, SOLAGES, SAYEGH, CRUZ, CARROLL, TAGUE, ALVAREZ, LUPARDO, LEVENBERG, FLOOD, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, MORINELLO, BRONSON, WOERNER, ZEBROWSKI, E. BROWN, REYES, ARDILA, GALLAHAN, SIMPSON, GANDOLFO, BENDETT, MCGOWAN, STECK, WALLACE, MAHER, WALSH, RAGA, LEE, PHEFFER AMATO, KELLES -- Multi-Spon- sored by -- M. of A. SIMON -- read once and referred to the Committee on Transportation -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- ordered to a third reading, amended and ordered reprinted, retaining its place on the order of third reading AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to requiring motor vehicle dealer franchisors to fully compensate franchised motor vehicle dealers for warranty service agreements The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 465 of the vehicle and traffic 2 law, as amended by chapter 26 of the laws of 2014, is amended to read as 3 follows: 4 1. Every franchisor shall properly fulfill any warranty agreement 5 and/or franchisor's service contract, including but not limited to all 6 warranty repairs, extended warranty repairs, factory compensated 7 repairs, recalls, diagnostics, parts and other voluntary stop-sell 8 repairs, and shall compensate each of its franchised motor vehicle deal- 9 ers for all warranty [parts and labor], recall, diagnostic labor oper- 10 ations and parts where applicable in amounts which reflect reasonable 11 compensation for such work. For purposes of this section, reasonable EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD02112-08-4A. 4066--B 2 1 compensation shall be the reasonable labor time allowances defined by 2 the retail labor time guide reasonably utilized by a franchised motor 3 vehicle dealer for non-warranty customer paid labor operations. All 4 warranty claims and/or claims under a franchisor's service contract made 5 by franchised motor vehicle dealers shall be paid within thirty days 6 following their approval. For diagnosis work, parts reimbursement, other 7 than components, systems, fixtures, appliances, furnishings, accessories 8 and features of a house coach that are designed, used and maintained 9 primarily for nonvehicular residential purposes, and for labor 10 reimbursement, reasonable compensation shall not be less than the price 11 and rate charged by the franchised motor vehicle dealer for like 12 services to non-warranty and/or non-service contract customers. For 13 purposes of this section, the price and rate charged by the franchised 14 motor vehicle dealer for parts may be established by submitting to the 15 franchisor one hundred sequential nonwarranty customer-paid service 16 repair orders or the number of sequential nonwarranty customer-paid 17 service repair orders written within a ninety day period, whichever is 18 less, covering repairs made no more than one hundred eighty days before 19 the submission, and declaring the price and rate, including average 20 markup for the franchised motor vehicle dealer as its reimbursement 21 rate. The reimbursement rate so declared shall go into effect thirty 22 days following the declaration and shall be presumed to be reasonable, 23 however a franchisor may rebut such presumption by showing that such 24 rate so established is unreasonable in light of the practices of all 25 other franchised motor vehicle dealers in the vicinity offering the same 26 line make. The franchised motor vehicle dealer shall not request a 27 change in the reimbursement rate more often than once in each calendar 28 year. In establishing the labor reimbursement rate, the franchisor shall 29 not require a franchised motor vehicle dealer to establish said rate by 30 a methodology, or by requiring information, that is unduly burdensome or 31 time consuming to provide, including, but not limited to, a transaction 32 by transaction calculation. For the purposes of this section, the 33 following parts or types of repairs shall be excluded from the parts 34 and/or labor calculations and the franchisor's reimbursement require- 35 ments under this section: (a) parts sold at wholesale; (b) tires; (c) 36 routine maintenance not covered under any retail customer warranty such 37 as fluids, filters and belts not provided in the course of repairs; (d) 38 vehicle reconditioning; and (e) batteries replaced as part of a routine 39 maintenance operation. If the franchisor rejects the declaration or 40 attempts to rebut the declaration because of an error in the dealer's 41 submission, the franchisor shall identify with specificity the reason 42 for rejection and identify the error or errors within the submission. In 43 the event the franchisor rejects or rebuts the dealer's initial declara- 44 tion, the dealer shall have the opportunity, within sixty days to resub- 45 mit the full and corrected declaration addressing the alleged error or 46 errors identified by the franchisor. The franchisor shall respond within 47 sixty days. The one hundred eighty day requirement for the repair orders 48 shall be stayed from the date of initial submission. In any action or 49 proceeding held pursuant to this subdivision, the franchisor shall have 50 the burden of proving that the rate declared by the dealer was unreason- 51 able as described in this subdivision and that the proposed adjustment 52 of the average percentage markup or rejection of the submission is 53 reasonable pursuant to the provisions of this subdivision. A warranty 54 claim timely made shall not be deemed invalid solely because unavailable 55 parts cause additional use and mileage on the vehicle. 56 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
