NEW ORLEANS — Saints owner Gayle Benson believes that executives from Nissan Motor Company and local rival car dealer Matt Bowers planned to block a deal she had with Ray Brandt Auto Group to buy two of its dealerships, according to Nola.com.
Benson planned to buy the Nissan and Infiniti dealerships in south Mississippi and Metairie.
On Friday, March 15, Benson's lawyer, Gregory Rouchell, sent a letter to Nissan's director of dealer network operations, Kyle Wierzbicki, stating that "Benson believed the carmaker had illegally blocked her deal to buy the two dealerships and instead arranged for Bowers to buy them."
Benson filed the letter as documentation with the Louisiana Motor Vehicle Commission, asking that the agency intervene in the matter, Nola.com reported.
She objects to Nissan's decision to "exercise its 'right of first refusal,' a commonly used tool that allows carmakers to intervene in the sale of a dealership and put in a preferred buyer."
The commission set its first hearing for the Nissan case on April 11.
"The commission, whose 15 members are mostly car dealers, typically tries to arbitrate a settlement in disputes of this nature", Rogers, a compliance investigator at the state motor vehicle commission told Nola.com.
According to our partners, if a settlement isn't reached, it goes to a panel of three board members who are not car dealers and they can decide if state rules were broken in the transactions. If they determine state laws were broken, they could impose fines and penalties or "scuttle" the deal.
If a settlement isn't reached, that hearing is set for May 20.
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