Lexus of Rockville Centre among 22 dealers that used misleading advertising and sales practices

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced this week a settlement requiring 22 auto dealerships on Long Island, including Lexus of Rockville Centre, to pay $310,000 in restitution and penalties to resolve false advertising claims.

The dealerships, all affiliated with Atlantic Automotive Group based in West Islip, persistently defrauded consumers with misleading promotions and fraudulent sales tactics. In total, the Attorney General’s Nassau and Suffolk Regional Offices received more than 250 complaints regarding the dealerships and their advertising and sales practices.

“Purchasing a car is one of the biggest financial decisions many families will make,” said Schneiderman. “New Yorkers have a right to navigate the car buying process without being targeted by false and misleading promotions and sales practices.”

Atlantic Automotive Group caused advertisements to be mailed to thousands of Nassau and Suffolk County consumers, with approximately 500,000 promotional items in total distributed by direct mail. The advertisements contained a scratch off game card, a pull tab game card, or a “Triple Diamond” game card where consumers could win a cash prize, a free vehicle, a flat-screen television or an Apple iPad. A winning ticket contained 3 like symbols but it did not explain what, if anything, the consumer won. Instead, consumers were instructed to bring the game card to the dealership during event times in order to claim their prize.

The game cards were deceptive and had the capacity to mislead consumers to believe that they were guaranteed winners of valuable prizes. In fact, virtually none of the consumers won a prize at all.

Atlantic Automotive Group also misled consumers through various other deceptive practices by:

- Obtaining signatures on contracts of sale and financing agreements from consumers who mistakenly believed that they were filling out paperwork for vehicles they had won as part of the promotions;

- Offering false monetary discounts off the sales price of a vehicle, by selling the vehicle at a high retail sales price which had the effect of nullifying the value of the discount offered;

- Charging consumers for extended warranties, vehicle maintenance contracts, and administrative fees that consumers did not want, had no knowledge of, or were told there was no charge for these products;