§ 55-27-103 — Funds held in trust by a manufacturer

Funds held by a manufacturer that are necessary to perform the obligations of the manufacturer to dealers or customers described in this section are trust funds held in trust by the manufacturer for the benefit of any dealer or customer to whom the obligation is owed: (1) Dealer holdbacks that are funds owed to a dealer by the manufacturer pursuant to an agreement between the parties calculated as a percentage of the manufacturer's suggested retail price of a vehicle sold by the manufacturer to the dealer, that accrue at the time the dealer sells the motor vehicle to a customer at retail and are to be paid to the dealer in monthly, quarterly or other installments; (2) Interest credits that are funds that become owed by a manufacturer to a dealer in an amount or percentage agreed upon by the parties at the time the dealer takes delivery of a motor vehicle purchased by the dealer from the manufacturer that are intended to pay the dealer a portion of the interest or other carrying charges incurred by the dealer in financing or floor planning its inventory of new motor vehicles; (3) Marketing stimulus credits that are funds the manufacturer has agreed to pay to the dealer based upon a percentage of the manufacturer's invoices for certain model years of motor vehicles sold to the dealer by the manufacturer that become payable upon the dealer taking delivery of the vehicles in accordance with the terms of the agreement between the parties; (4) Customer rebates that are funds in an amount that a manufacturer determines and agrees to extend to customers who purchase certain motor vehicles and that become due and payable by the manufacturer at the time the customer purchases a qualifying motor vehicle, whether the right to receipt of the rebate is retained by the customer or assigned to the dealer by the customer at the time the sale of the vehicle takes place; (5) Dealer cash rebates including concessions that are amounts of money that a manufacturer has agreed to pay to a dealer that become due at the time of sale of a vehicle and payable to the dealer according to the terms of the agreement of the parties; (6) Credit card rewards that are amounts of money that the holder of a credit card sponsored by a manufacturer can accrue and accumulate that can be used by the holder as partial payment for the purchase from a dealer of a new motor vehicle made by the manufacturer or an affiliate of the manufacturer and that the holder becomes entitled to use by the purchase of the vehicle and has been assigned to the dealer by the holder or by operation of law or contract; (7) Advertising funds that are amounts charged by the manufacturer to a dealer as a percentage of the invoice price of a motor vehicle sold by the manufacturer to the dealer that are intended to be held by the manufacturer for the benefit of the dealer and used to reimburse the dealer for advertising expenses incurred by the dealer that meet the requirements imposed by the agreement between the manufacturer and the dealer; (8) Employee or supplier discounts that are the amounts that a manufacturer has agreed to pay to a dealer as additional consideration for the sale of a motor vehicle computed as either a fixed amount or percentage of the sales price of a motor vehicle sold by the dealer under a manufacturer's employees and suppliers plan and that become due to the dealer at the time of sale of a vehicle to the employee or supplier pursuant to the manufacturer's plan, and that become payable to the dealer in accordance with the terms of the plan or other agreement between the manufacturer and the dealer; (9) Employee buyout vouchers that are contractual arrangements under which a manufacturer provides to an employee upon termination or as a bonus a voucher in a predetermined amount that the employee is entitled to use as a means of payment or partial payment for a new motor vehicle manufactured by the manufacturer or an affiliate of the manufacturer, and that a dealer has become entitled to be paid at the time of its acceptance from the employee by the dealer upon sale of a qualifying motor vehicle; and (10) Warranty payments that are payments that a manufacturer becomes obligated to pay to a dealer or other repair facility for the cost of parts, labor and associated taxes and other charges incurred in performing repairs or other services to a motor vehicle covered by a vehicle warranty extended or provided by the manufacturer with respect to the motor vehicle that become due at the time the parts, repairs or services are provided and are payable under the terms of the warranty or other agreement.

Legislative History

Acts 2009, ch. 322, § 2.