Kettering-based Reynolds and Reynolds hit with second antitrust suit

A major Kettering employer has been hit with a second 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 LLC 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 against Reynolds and Reynolds and CDK Global, Inc.

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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 (DMS) 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.

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.”

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