Framingham Car Dealership To Pay $350K For Discriminatory Pricing

FRAMINGHAM, MA — A Framingham car dealership has agreed to a settlement for unfair, deceptive and discriminatory pricing of “add-on” products sold to Black and Hispanic consumers, the Attorney General's Office said.

It's alleged that Hometown Auto, which operates two car dealerships located in Wellesley and Danvers, charged Black and Hispanic consumers higher prices for “add-on” products in comparison to white consumers, the AG's Office said. This is in violation of the Consumer Protection Act.

The company will pay a settlement of $350,000. According to the AG's Office, $200,000 will be allocated to provide restitution to harmed consumers and to enact several business practice changes in order to decrease the likelihood of pricing disparities in the future.

Some of these changes include:

• Providing staff training on implicit bias and the obligation not to discriminate when pricing products.
• Requiring disclosure of “add-on” product pricing to provide transparency on the price of any add-on product offered to consumers.
• Improving oversight of “add-on” product pricing by implementing a standardized pricing policy for “add-on” products that limit when and why staff may deviate from such prices and requires documentation and oversight for pricing deviations.
• Providing compliance monitoring information to the AG’s Office concerning future “add-on” product sales.