Reynolds hit with second antitrust lawsuit
A major Kettering employer has been hit with an antitrust lawsuit, the second in a matter of months.
Authenticom Inc., a company that says it provides management services that connect more than 12,000 auto dealerships, sued Kettering’s Reynolds and Reynolds and CDK Global Monday in a federal court in Wisconsin. The plaintiff also moved to keep its complaint under seal.
An industry publication says the suit charges Reynolds and CDK with forming a duopoly in auto dealer data integration services, and the publication compared it to a suit filed earlier this year by Motor Vehicle Software Corp. — a provider of electronic vehicle registration and titling services — in federal court in Los Angeles.
That earlier suit also targeted Reynolds and Reynolds and CDK Global.
Reynolds provides services, forms and software to automobile dealers and has around 1,300 employees in a County Line Road campus.
The earlier lawsuit alleges that Reynolds and CDK entered into an “illegal conspiracy” to block Southern California-based MVSC from participating in their data access programs. MVSC said it needs access to a car dealer’s dealer management system software to provide its services.
“There is no other place where the data is stored, and without access to this data, it is impossible to provide … services,” MVSC said in an amended complaint filed this week in Los Angeles, in its suit against Reynolds and CDK.
That suit refers to Reynolds and CDK as the “giants” of the DMS market, serving nearly 80 percent of U.S. auto dealers, the suit said.
“CDK and Reynolds have seized control over who is allowed to access the data,” the MVSC suit said.
Reynolds spokesman Thomas Schwartz did not have an immediate comment on the new suit Wednesday, but he said the company may have a statement later.
Referring to the earlier MVSC lawsuit, Schwartz said, “thirdparty providers” that meet Reynolds’ standards are welcome to access electronic vehicle registration applications. But he said MVSC “elected to file a lawsuit in what appears to us to be an effort to extract preferential treatment.”
“Reynolds’ focus now is on defending against this suit, which, from our point of view, we see as entirely without merit,” he said.
Automotive News quotes Authenticom’s complaint as saying, “CDK and Reynolds have succeeded in eliminating virtually all competition in the data integration market for dealers using the CDK and Reynolds DMS platforms, and have now targeted Authenticom, their only remaining competitor.”
Assurant reported a slight bump in income for the first quarter this year, which company officials said was partially offset by declines in the lender-placed insurance portion of its business based in Springfield.
Assurant reported net operating income of $106 million, compared to about $100 million at the same time last year, company officials said Wednesday. The company’s Global Housing Division, based in Springfield, is one the Clark County’s largest employers with more than 1,800 workers.
“We delivered solid first quarter results, due mainly to better underlying profitability in extended services contracts and certain onetime items,” said Alan Colberg, Assurant’s president and chief executive.
The Global Housing Division reported about $62 million in net operating income for the first quarter, about 19 percent less than at the same time last year.
Assurant’s Springfield office provides operational support for customers and clients of its Global Housing Division. The Global Housing Division, previously known as its Specialty Property Division, provides insurance and related services in partnership with financial institutions and other major clients.
Company leaders attributed the results to a decline in lender-placed insurance and weaker performance in Assurant’s mortgage solutions business.
The company’s overall results saw a boost from extended service contracts and other one-time items, Colberg said.
“We are confident that growth in targeted areas and expense efficiencies will enable us to deliver on our 2017 earnings and capital deployment commitments, despite lender-placed insurance and legacy business declines,” Colberg said in a statement. “While results may vary by quarter, our ongoing transformation is solidifying a foundation for profitable growth in 2018 and beyond.”