Tekion files federal antitrust lawsuit against CDK Global
While CDK Global recently renewed relationships with Holman in the U.S. as well as with AutoCanada, the technology provider is facing another lawsuit.
On Tuesday, Tekion said it filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against CDK Global, accusing the company of engaging in a systematic scheme to thwart competition in the franchised dealer management system market.
Tekion claimed CDK has a history of engaging in “unfair and anticompetitive business tactics that harm the automotive retail industry.” Examples noted by Tekion included:
—In October, a Georgia court ordered CDK to provide the data of four Asbury Automotive Group dealerships to Tekion. CDK refused to transfer the dealerships’ data to Tekion until compelled by the court. In fact, CDK sued Asbury first since Asbury tried to access its own data.
—In August, CDK agreed to pay $100 million after it was sued by dealerships in a class action antitrust lawsuit for colluding to inflate DMS prices.
—In July 2019, CDK attempted to block Arizona House Bill 2418, also known as the DMS law, which requires companies like CDK to grant third parties unrestricted access to its DMS and all included data without authorization of CDK. CDK fought this law all the way to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals but lost.
According to a news release, Fenwick & West filed the antitrust suit on behalf of Tekion. The lawsuit aims to end CDK’s data monopolization and seeks damages and an injunction to facilitate data transfer to Tekion within 10 days of a dealership’s request.
The entire lawsuit can be viewed here.
“CDK’s technology is outdated. Instead of innovating and competing fairly, CDK has resorted to unfair and anticompetitive business tactics to protect its dominant market position, including holding dealers’ data hostage to stop them from switching to a platform of their choice. In some cases, CDK has even sued its own customers over access to their data,” said Tekion CEO Jay Vijayan, who founded the company in 2016.
“We have decided to stand up to CDK’s illegal practices to preserve fairness and competition in the automotive retail ecosystem,” Vijayan added.