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Ford Dealers Seeking More Compensation Following Cyberattack

Back in June, CDK Global was impacted by a cyberattack/ransomware attack stemming from a group of European hackers, which had tremendous ripple effects on several Ford dealers – along with the 15,000 total dealerships that company serves in the U.S. For several weeks, certain dealers were unable to complete the sales process, leaving them scrambling to figure out how to continue to do business while they waited on a resolution. That finally happened earlier this month when CDK systems came back online, but the damage was already done.

Village Ford Dealership Dearborn Michigan

That cyberattack is estimated to have cost dealers a whopping $1 billion in lost sales and other areas, though CDK recently indicated that it will financially compensate those impacted by the outage. However, a group of Pennsylvania area Ford dealers filed a lawsuit against CDK a couple of weeks ago, and it seems as if some others are seeking more compensation than what the company has offered them thus far, according to Automotive News.

Dealers have reportedly been offered a one-month rebate on their bill for CDK’s systems, but those same entities don’t believe that’s enough to cover the lost productivity, sales, and additional overtime required to compensate for the outage. “I would say three months would probably be closer to making up for what’s happened,” said Judy Farcus Serra, COO of Headquarter Automotive. While some dealers have apparently accepted the one-month deal and moved on, others believe that CDK’s compensation should at least match their actual cyberattack-related costs – which, in some cases, reached $20,000 or more, compared to the $18,000 or so that some dealers are paying for the company’s services on a monthly basis.

Montanari Ford Signature Dealership Argentina Service Bay

“We appreciate and value our dealership partners [and] recognize the resilience they showed by continuing to conduct business throughout the outage,” Scott Herbers, CDK’s chief revenue officer, said in a statement. “My team and I have personally spoken to the dealerships, and most have been very grateful and appreciative of the compensation.”

We’ll have more on the fallout from this cyberattack soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.

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Comments

  1. Ford dealers should also demand more compensation for repairing the millions of vehicles that Ford Motor Co has recalled since Failure Farley became CEO. Dealers make no profits on recalls; the manufacturers just reimburse their costs only.

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  2. Funny how a digital product company can cripple sales. I remember buying a Ford Focus after I joined the US Army and there was more paperwork buying that car then there was at MEPS to join the military. Nothing was digital except my credit application and that was back when you weren’t supposed to know your credit score.

    So you’re telling me 20+ years later that people can’t buy a car without the services of a very specific company? Dealerships can’t do actual paperwork anymore? Seems like a really poor business model for dealerships and a great business model for CDK. There are other ways to sell vehicles other than CDK only, so dealerships suing should be laughed out of court. Seems like dealerships were too lazy to do paperwork and wanted the quick and easy CDK input way. I get that it’s faster and easier, but doesn’t mean it’s the only way. Which means lost revenue from not selling cars is 100% the dealership’s fault. If someone inadvertently cuts the internet line to a dealership and they can’t sell cars for a while, do they get to sue the ISP? They’re providing a service like CDK. Nobody wants the internet line cut, nobody wants to be hacked, neither are deliberate. But who’s at fault for cars not being sold, since that’s the issue they’re bringing to court. CDK doesn’t sell cars and there are many other ways to stay in business and sell cars…

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