Auto tech firm CDK reaches $630 million settlement | finance news
By Mike Scarcella
(Reuters) – Automotive technology giant CDK World has agreed to pay $630 million to settle antitrust claims that it precipitated tons of of software program distributors to overpay for vehicle dealership information by limiting entry.
The proposed settlement, filed on Monday night time in a federal court docket in Madison, Wisconsin, requires a choose’s approval.
The company denied any wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.
Austin, Texas-based CDK, owned by Brookfield Enterprise Companions, sells software program platforms auto sellers use to run their each day gross sales, financing and repair operations.
Tech vendor AutoLoop and different firms included within the settlement create apps for the sellers’ management systems for stock management, restore orders, guarantee companies and different capabilities.
AutoLoop sued CDK in 2018, accusing it of reducing off entry to auto vendor systems and driving up costs distributors pay to entry information for his or her apps. A choose licensed the case as a class motion in July.
CDK and attorneys for the company didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The distributors had indicated they’d search damages of $490 million at a trial beforehand scheduled for this week. A jury award may have been tripled underneath antitrust law.
The distributors who introduced the category motion embody 243 firms that bought information integration companies since October 2013 from CDK or one of its rivals, Reynolds & Reynolds, which isn’t a defendant.
Legal professionals for AutoLoop and different members of the category motion at Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick referred to as the settlement “extraordinary” in a assertion and stated it stemmed from “years of hard-fought litigation.” They stated they’d ask the court docket for about $200 million in legal charges.
CDK agreed to pay $100 million in August to settle a class motion by U.S. auto dealerships claiming they overpaid for the company’s vendor management systems.
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Modifying by David Bario and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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