Don’t Borrow Trouble

By Tom Kline, Better Vantage Point | Tuck The Octopus

I have a new friend in the UK and his name is Martin.

While we were talking about a thing, he gave me great counsel, “Don’t borrow trouble.”

I had not heard the expression before, but it sure does make sense. Don’t sit idly in vapor lock and do nothing. If you know there are problems out there, which you haven’t worked on, then dive right in, make a plan, and move forward. Martin’s my kind of guy.

Here’s the latest news for you to be able to act on:

“The Federal Trade Commission has received a $14.6 million Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) grant that will enable the agency to enhance its in-house data processing capabilities and improve the way it analyzes data used in its investigations, saving both time and money.”¹

“The FTC will use the grant to develop a comprehensive cloud-based analytics platform that leverages AI tools and train staff to handle complex data analysis in-house. These new tools will enable the agency to reduce the amount of time it takes to sift through data from weeks to hours. And doing this work in-house will save millions of dollars by reducing the agency’s reliance on more costly outside contractors.

The TMF provides grants to federal agencies to modernize IT projects that have a high likelihood of success and generate savings and other benefits for taxpayers.”²

So, what does this mean for dealerships? It means the FTC will have new tools to crawl your website and look for potential deceptive advertising. That’s one example.

Compliance is a critical component of an overall risk mitigation program at the dealership. From a more global perspective, it’s worth considering what can potentially happen if you leave your compliance efforts adrift. Here’s what I found in the Practical Law Commercial Transactions journal:

Prevent Violations of Law and Resulting Consequences

• Criminal Penalties
• Criminal Indictment and Liability for Owners, Directors, Officers, and Management
• Civil Damages
• Shareholder Lawsuits
• Other Private Plaintiff Lawsuits
• Business Disruption
• Legal Expense
• Heightened Government Scrutiny
• Reputational Harm
• Damage to Employee Morale³

Any of these big problems can occur when we stray from our compliance obligations or simply ignore them. Any of these potential consequences – as a result of an action by lawyers or regulators - will take their toll on the dealership which easily exceeds tens of thousands of dollars in actual damages and even more in soft costs. For example, how many employees quit after the dealership gets into problems in the public eye? Suddenly, they are not so proud of where they work because of the negative publicity. So, they seek work elsewhere. This type of “brain drain” costs hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost productivity, plus, the extra expense of retraining a new person in a new position. In addition, new employees make mistakes as a result of their being in a new role. The costs here are high. These types of events are very disruptive for the business as leadership is not concentrating on profitability while dealing with these issues. For example, leadership may be:

• participating in internal investigations;
• responding to government requests for information and documents;
• planning for and attending meetings and interviews with regulators; and
• preparing for and testifying at trial.⁴

Other negative results can include a loss of contracts from the state or federal government (i.e. fleet business). These contracts usually have a “morality clause” which defines specific behaviors which are deemed unacceptable and which defines the company’s public image as grounds for termination of the agreement.

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) does not need actual customer complaints in order to investigate your business. The FTC simply need “a reason to believe” that a law has been or is about to be violated in order to open an investigation. There’s no “three strikes and you’re out” type of rule. In fact, if you go to the ReportFraud.FTC.gov site, there are radio buttons for you to click to report a fraud. One of the ten (10) featured buttons is “Auto sale, repair.” It’s super-easy to complain which means it’s super-easy for a disgruntled customer to create a big problem for you.

Martin was right – don’t borrow trouble. If you ignore compliance, you’re not borrowing it, you are inviting trouble for dinner. So, be proactive, make a plan, get your house in order, and get ahead of the curve. You’ll sleep better at night. I promise.

References

1. Federal Trade Commission Press Release, July 28, 2025. ↩
2. Federal Trade Commission Press Release, July 28, 2025. ↩
3. Practice Note in Practical Law, Thomson Reuters, February, 2025. ↩
4. Practice Note in Practical Law, Thomson Reuters, February, 2025. ↩