CDK Sued by Rival Tekion Over Dealer Systems
Dealer technology provider Tekion has filed a federal lawsuit against its rival, CDK Global, as part of an escalating dispute over dealership data rights and vendor transition, according to Reuters and other outlets.
The lawsuit was filed Dec. 9 in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California in San Francisco. It alleges a “systematic scheme” to discourage users of CDK’s dealer management system (DMS) — about 50% of the U.S. market, according to some estimates — from switching to Tekion or another provider.
Cited tactics include refusing to share or delaying the transfer of dealership-generated data.
“CDK’s most frequent anti-competitive practice has been to abuse its ability to control access to the data belonging to franchise dealerships,” the lawsuit states, in part. “Franchise dealerships that decide to move from one DMS provider to another must have meaningful access to their data sufficiently in advance of the move — typically several months — to validate and integrate their data in the new DMS.”
