On 25 September, the AADA attended a roundtable in Melbourne hosted by the ACCC on its New Car Retailing Industry Market Study. The purpose of the roundtable was for the ACCC to seek industry views on the key findings and recommendations of its market study draft report released in August.
The forum was attended by a wide range of stakeholders, including AADA, AP Eagers, the FCAI, several OEMs, the AAAA, a number of independent repair chains, the MTAA and their state bodies, consumer groups, the Insurance Council of Australia and representatives from ASIC and the ACCC.
The areas of interest to franchised dealers which were covered at the roundtable were:
- Access to service and repair information; and
- Consumer guarantees and warranties.
The discussion on Access to Service and Repair Information ran for almost three hours and the AADA received a good hearing.
The AADA took the opportunity to recognise that independent repairers are an important part of the service and repair industry and franchised new car dealers have no hidden agenda or plan to disadvantage them or reduce their market share.
However, the AADA maintained that the existing Heads of Agreement is working and independent repairers are currently able to access the service and repair information they need. The effectiveness of the agreement is demonstrated by the fact that the dispute resolution provisions of the agreement have never been tested – no independent repairer has formally commenced action arguing information is being restricted.
In the session on consumer guarantees and warranties, there was a broad discussion on the difficulties dealers encounter when trying to resolve customer concerns within the constraints of the dealer agreements.
The roundtable briefly touched on a number of other issues, such as parts, vehicle emissions labelling and telematics.
Following the roundtable, the ACCC indicated that it will be seeking one on one meetings with the various organisations to discuss some of the issues raised in more detail.
The report is due to be finalised by the end of the year.
To read a copy of the AADA’s media release, please click here.
David Blackhall
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Automotive Dealer Association Ltd
E: dblackhall@aada.asn.au
M: +61 413 007 833
James Voortman
Executive Director Policy and Communications
Australian Automotive Dealer Association Ltd
E: jvoortman@aada.asn.au
M: +61 452 535 696
Brian Savage
Executive Director Operations
Australian Automotive Dealer Association Ltd
E: bsavage@aada.asn.au
M: +61 418 377 594
