Court Denied Fremont Toyota’s Petition to Compel Arbitration
On May 8, 2012, the Honorable Steven A. Brick denied Fremont Toyota’s Petition to Compel Arbitration in Burton v. Fremont Automobile Dealership, LLC, Alemeda County Case No. HG12618098, allowing the class action to proceed in court. The first class identified in Ms. Burton’s lawsuit is consumers who purchased vehicles from Fremont Toyota and signed backdated contracts. Ms. Burton alleges Fremont Toyota would cancel contracts and have customers sign new contracts, and the new contracts would be dated the date of the customer’s original contract. The second class identified in Ms. Burton’s lawsuit is consumers who purchased vehicles from Fremont Toyota and were automatically charged an Optional DMV Electronic Filing Fee. Ms. Burton alleges that instead of giving customers the choice of whether to pay Fremont Toyota to electronically submit their registration information to the DMV, Fremont Toyota automatically charged its customers for this service, profiting on every deal. Finally, the third class of consumers identified in Ms. Burton’s lawsuit are those consumers who purchased vehicles from Fremont Toyota and signed a Debit Authorization Form. Ms. Burton alleges the Debit Authorization Form contains provisions in violation of California law. Ms. Burton alleges Fremont Toyota backdated contracts, automatically charged consumers an optional fee, and used illegal Debit Authorization Forms with customers between February 21, 2008, and February 21, 2012.
If any of these practices happened to you at Fremont Toyota, in Fremont, or any other dealership in California, and you would like more information about this class action case or how the Auto Fraud Legal Center can help you, please feel free to contact Hawk Barry, either by phone at 800-466-5366, or via the contact form on the left.