Garden City Nissan Accused of Deceptive Business Practices, Including Against Minority Customers

According to a class action Complaint filed in Nassau County, Supreme Court on May 28, 2020, a former Garden City Nissan customer on behalf of herself and other similarly situated customers alleged that Garden City Nissan — through its various business entities and individuals (“GCN”) — engaged in numerous alleged deceptive schemes, including schemes that were aimed at minority customers.

As alleged in the complaint, “Defendants also engaged in at least eight deceptive schemes aimed at profiting from customers through omitting material information or misrepresenting the nature of the transactions to customers when those customers purchased, leased, or sold automobiles and financial products related to the same from Defendants.”

Some of the alleged schemes include the following:

• GCN “engaged in a systematic fraudulent scheme whereby they failed to disclose that ‘certified used cars’ did not actually qualify as ‘certified’ under the manufacturer’s specifications.”
• GCN “also engaged in no less than five fraudulent schemes aimed at minority and protected customers, including schemes implemented through its ‘Special Finance Department.'”
• GCN “also offered worse financial conditions to minorities, including maximizing interest rates without disclosing to those customers that they were eligible for lower interest rates. The rates payable by and charged to racial and ethnic minorities’ vehicle purchases at Defendants’ dealerships were worse than their non-minority counterparts.”
• GCN “falsified and altered documents to obtain … rebates for themselves, instead of providing those benefits to the customers.”

The complaint is filed as Index No. 604918/2020 in Supreme Court, Nassau County. Download a copy of the Complaint here.

The Plaintiff is represented by Leeds Brown Law, P.C., 1 Old Country Road, Suite 347, Carle Place, NY 11514. If you purchased a car from Garden City Nissan, feel free to contact the law firm to see if you were subject to the alleged schemes asserted in the Complaint.