Posted On: August 17, 2004, 5:58 pm CDT

Posted By: Leo Cyr - National Glass Assoc

Dan...Here is the response I promised earler today.

I am not an attorney so I will not try to respond as if I am. Having left the NGA in 1990 and only returning last September, I needed to do some homework on the question you raised.

The NGA's Office of General Counsel conducted a thorough search of federal law and found nothing that specifically refers to "steering" as illegal. Several lawsuits, notably in Texas and New York, have alleged that "steering" violated federal racketeering statutes. Both suits failed. At least one other lawsuit is still pending.

I also asked our legislative researcher to review state law so we might respond to your question. You asked..."where law also allows insurance companies to require their insureds to call my direct competitor for the purpose of filing their claims."

We found no evidence that any state has ever "allowed an insurance company to require their insureds to call" a specific or particular auto glass service provider. To the contrary, Arizona and Michigan passed new laws this year specifically prohibiting insurance companies from telling their customers where they can get their vehicles repaired. The Arizona and Michigan laws specifically reference auto glass as do earlier laws passed in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky. Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Sixteen other states have enacted consumer protection laws to safeguard the consumer's right to "free choice" in selecting their automotive service provider. In these states, we find no specific reference to auto glass but rather to automotive service in general.

That is a total of 33 states with laws on the books to protect consumer "freedom of choice" in automotive service. The NGA has consistently supported "free choice" to protect consumer rights and will continue to do so. That is the NGA's position.

Where the entire industry, including the NGA, appears to have fallen short is in educating the consumer that they have a right to free choice and, more importantly, why they should insist on exercising that right. The NGA has formed the Coalition for Auto Glass Safety & Public Awareness (CASPA) to address that deficiency. In fact, CASPA's first national press release addressing this subject was issued this week. Other releases will follow on a regular basis.

Promoting "free choice" will be a priority item for discussion at the NGA's Auto Glass Conference & Expo next month in Tampa. Our NGA Auto Glass Division will solicit ideas from its members as well as propose initiatives that are in addition to the national press releases.

In summary, I don't think the issue is NGA's position. As I said above, I have gone back through the archives and found the NGA consistently supported "free choice". The problem is that too few consumers are aware of their "rights" or why it is in their best interest to insist their "free choice" be respected. Because they are unaware or don't care, they say nothing. That silence leads state government to conclude there is no problem.

The NGA should bear its share of the blame. We all should. Using the wisdom of hindsight, we should have begun the auto glass education of the American consumer 25 years ago. Had we done so... the hue and cry to pressure government for reform and / or to enforce existing law would be deafening.

At the moment there is only silence. We will do everything we can to provide the consumer with the information they need to decide for themselves and we will do so as fast as possible.

In an earlier posting, I assumed "steering" was universally illegal. I suspect I am not the only person in our industry to have made this assumption. I apologize if I misled anyone and I thank you for suggesting I check the facts.