On October 8, 2026 the Federal Trade Commission announced that Greenway Auto Group had agreed to settle a lawsuit over advertised prices that were thousands of dollars below what the company actually charged. The proposed order requires the dealership group's price advertisements to include the actual price a consumer must pay, excluding only charges the government requires the buyer to pay. Under the rule the FTC applied, the advertised price has to be the price any consumer can walk in and pay. Dealer fees, document fees and required add-ons belong inside that number.

What the FTC says an advertised price must be

FTC staff published detailed guidance on this in September 2026, in an FAQ document on price transparency for the automobile industry. The operative sentence is short: if a dealer requires a consumer to pay a fee to buy the car, that fee must be included in the advertised price.

The only amounts a dealer may leave out are government required charges, meaning amounts a federal, state or local government agency requires the consumer to pay directly. Then the FAQ closes the obvious loophole. Everything else must be included, and that covers dealer required fees that governments authorize but do not mandate, along with fees a government requires the dealer to pay and the dealer passes on to the buyer.

Every format counts. Dealership and third party websites, social media, print advertisements, roadside signs, and phone calls or text messages with dealership staff all fall under the same requirement.

What Greenway is alleged to have done

The complaint says Greenway charged consumers more than $3,350 over the advertised price on average, in more than 92 percent of transactions. The FTC's account names administrative fees, dealer fees, delivery fees and processing fees, and says some advertised prices reflected conditional rebates and discounts that only a subset of buyers could obtain.

The case has a second part. The FTC alleges the company sent mailers telling recipients they had won thousands of dollars in cash prizes that could be collected at a Greenway dealership, when the prizes were not real.

The sequence is worth noting. In March 2026 the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection sent Greenway a letter warning about misleading advertising and telling it that the price consumers see in advertising must be the actual price they pay. According to the complaint, Greenway added assurances of price transparency to its websites and kept advertising vehicles for thousands less than their actual prices.

The Commission vote authorizing staff to file the complaint and the stipulated final order was 2-0. The FTC filed both in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division. A stipulated order has the force of law once a district judge approves and signs it.

The prominence rule, which is where listings fail

Price transparency is not only about which charges are included. It is also about which number stands out.

On webpages that state any amount a consumer may pay, the FAQ says the actual price must be listed as the most prominent amount. That covers inventory search pages and individual vehicle listing pages.

Prominence is not a matter of font size alone. A dealer that prints the actual price in 16 point type while showing the manufacturer's suggested retail price in smaller type can still fail the test if the smaller figure sits somewhere more likely to draw attention.

Conditional discounts are allowed beside the real price. A dealer advertising a $34,999 car can offer a $1,000 discount for first responders in the same online advertisement, provided the $34,999 figure that any consumer could pay is the most prominent amount and the terms of the discount are clear.

A large blank ivory price panel stands in front of a smaller gray comparison panel beside a generic dark car silhouette.
Concept illustration of the FTC staff FAQ's prominence guidance: on a page that states an amount a buyer may pay, the actual price must be the most prominent amount. No real listing or price is shown; the FAQ represents staff views and is not binding on the public or the Commission.

How document fees change the advertised number

The document fee is the clearest worked example in the guidance. If a dealer advertising a $40,000 vehicle charges any consumer an $85 document fee on the transaction, the advertised price must be $40,085, with no other charges beyond those the government requires the buyer to pay.

Discounting the fee for one buyer does not lower the advertised figure. A dealer that quotes a smaller document fee to one customer and requires the higher mandatory fee from another cannot advertise a price built from the smaller fee, because that misleads whoever ends up paying more.

Leasing carries one specific note: processing fees due upfront must be included in any advertisement about the total amount due upfront.

Negotiating, options and cars that are not on the lot

Dealers and buyers can negotiate, and a buyer can pay less than the advertised price. What the dealer cannot do is build the advertisement around a price only some buyers received. The FAQ gives the example of a car advertised at $24,999 where a walk-in customer is quoted $26,499 because a few earlier shoppers got the lower number.

Optional products follow the same logic. Protection packages, accessories and other extras can be offered, but a dealer cannot suggest an add-on is required when it is optional, imply that an installed option cannot be removed and must be paid for, misstate what an option costs, or charge for options the buyer never agreed to.

Vehicles that are not physically on the lot are covered too. A car still in transit from the manufacturer, stored offsite or shared between stores can be advertised, but the advertisement must plainly state that the vehicle is not on the lot. Using a car that has already been delivered as bait to draw people in and then steer them to something more expensive is the kind of advertising the FTC Act prohibits. Because used cars differ in condition, buyers can reasonably expect a used car photo to show the exact vehicle.

Responsibility for the number is shared. The FAQ puts it on everyone with control over the advertising: the dealer, any third party placing the advertisement, and the manufacturer whose policies touch it. Dealers are told to give third parties the actual price, to take the steps within their control to see that it is displayed most prominently, and to make sure nobody at the store gives contradictory instructions.

What a shopper can do with this

Treat the advertised number as a claim to test rather than a price. Ask for the total before any negotiation, in writing, and compare it with the advertisement that brought you in.

If the two do not match, the FTC asks the public to report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, including the dealership name and details of the violation.

There is no compliance window to wait out. The FAQ states that price transparency is not a new requirement, that the FTC Act and its Section 5 requirements have been in effect for decades, and that anyone misleading consumers about price risks enforcement action. The same document notes that the Commission is pursuing price transparency across several markets at once, naming grocery delivery, rental housing, sports and concert ticketing alongside auto sales and leasing, and on October 5, 2026 the FTC sent letters to 24 large healthcare services companies about their pricing disclosures.

What the settlement does not settle

The order binds Greenway rather than the industry, and a stipulated order still depends on a judge's signature. The complaint describes average overcharges across transactions, so it does not establish what any individual buyer paid, and nothing in the FTC's announcement sets out a refund program for Greenway customers.