NFDA lobbies for BER renewal

It said the BER should enable dealer independence and called on the government to maintain dealers' rights to sell and service competing brands and to separate retail and aftersales activities.

The NFDA said dealers should be allowed to sell their franchises to other dealers within the brand's network and that a level of dealer job security should be guaranteed. The association said manufacturers should be obliged to give detailed and objective reasons for dealer terminations and that retailers should have the right to refer disputes to an independent arbitrator and be given a minimum of two years' notice of termination. NFDA director Sue Robinson said: “The NFDA believes that the Commission's Evaluation Report does not provide a sufficiently compelling case for the removal of sector-specific regulation.”