New York City is suing car selling platform CarGurus for allegedly deceiving their customers on the costs.
According to the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), CarGurus advertises “Good Deals,” “Great Deals,” and similar “bargains’’ on their website, making buyers think they’re getting a discount.
What the advertisements didn’t display were the down payments, buyer requirements, and other mandatory fees. Many times, this added thousands to the customer’s total price.
The DCWP cited one example from June 2026. The platform advertised a “Great Deal” 2018 Honda for what looked like $2,212 under market price. Only at the very bottom of the ad was a list of other required costs.
These hidden fees put the total price $1,473 above average—so the customer spent more than they would’ve elsewhere. The website also featured an AI bot sharing “deals” that didn’t always exist as presented.
Mass Violations & Fines Demanded
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“New Yorkers should be able to trust that a ‘Great Deal’ is actually a great deal,” DCWP Commissioner Samuel A.A. Levine said. “Our lawsuit seeks to stop bait-and-switch pricing, eliminate hidden fees, and ensure customers aren’t getting fleeced when making one of the biggest purchases of their lives.”
Per court documents, the DCWP is suing CarGurus for violating the New York City Consumer Protection Law on 2,000+ occasions. The law prohibits companies from deceiving customer to sell products. This includes false or deceptive advertisements, bargains with “hidden conditions,” sham sales and similar tactics.
FTC Warnings
CarGurus has alleged making efforts to identify and remove deceptive listings. Despite this, the DCWP is accusing the platform of failing to “adequately enforce” its policies—which technically include disclosing all required costs.
But it wasn’t until June 2026 that the platform issued a deadline to sellers, and threatened consequences if they didn’t meet it.
CarGurus sent the notice in response to warnings from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) —who sent letters to 97 platforms. The FTC threatened fines (up to $53,000 per violation) and legal action against dealers omitting fees from listings.
CarGurus Responds
“We are deeply disappointed that the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) is bringing claims against CarGurus,” CarGurus wrote in a statement.
“We’re also surprised they’re taking this step given our history of leading the market in information transparency, our open collaboration with them, and our repeated efforts to engage productively with them.”
CarGurus is not the first car selling platform DCWP has gone after. The department said that in the past five years, it has looked into claims of deception from 106 used car dealerships, which CarGurus connects buyers with.
These investigations have led to New Yorkers receiving $1.79 million back. Additionally, guilty dealerships were ordered to pay a total of $6.5 million.