Guest commentary: ​Florida case will decide if linking vehicle allocations to facility upgrades constitutes coercion

Additional vehicles, cash payments, and other benefits can encourage dealers to participate in manufacturer facility-upgrade programs. But when declining to participate puts a dealer at a significant competitive disadvantage, the line between incentive and coercion becomes less clear.

In an article for Automotive News, Day Pitney Partners Laurence Smith and Michael Fialkoff examine that divide through The Collection, LLC v. Porsche Latin America, Inc., a notable Florida case involving a Porsche program that conditioned eligibility for discretionary vehicle allocations on facility upgrades. They explore whether the program offered dealers a permissible incentive or effectively penalized those that chose not to participate, as well as how the outcome could help courts evaluate similar disputes under state dealer-protection laws.

Read more here.