LOS ALTOS, Calif. – The laws governing car dealers and the auto industry can be, to put it mildly, complex.
Marc Bonanni, the new associate general counsel at Beepi, would know.
He has been an attorney in the auto industry for 32 years, holding counselor positions at places like Autobytel and Peugeot Motors of America. He has also worked with dealers, both as a partner at Auto Advisory Services and his most recent position, where he ran his own law firm that represented dealers and tech companies.
Bonanni joined the Beepi team officially on April 1, part of a few recent moves the company has made on the legal and tech fronts.
Marjorie Lewis, who joined Beepi’s advisory board, has taken on the role of chief counsel. Additionally, Beepi named Sri Subramaniam its vice president of engineering.
Auto Remarketing caught up with Bonanni to talk about the intricacies of the regulatory world facing a company like Beepi.
‘Work with them’
Given the legal complexities of auto retailing by itself, you can imagine the landscape when you throw online, peer-to-peer and/or direct-to-consumer modeling into the mix.
Particularly when the laws that govern car retailing are, as Bonanni argues, often outdated.
The key, he says, is to work with regulators to adjust to the new ways of retailing, and he is taking that approach in his role with Beepi, which is on the front lines of this new wave of car buying — joined by peers, automakers, dealers and more.
“I know firsthand the laws that are based in the ‘50s and ‘60s are not addressing this new-age buying process. So from an attorney’s standpoint, this is an opportunity to work with the regulators — not work against them, but work with them — to get the definitions more in line with what today’s buying process is,” Bonanni said.
“And that’s, quite frankly, (what has) hamstrung the traditional car dealers for all these years, having these large brick-and-mortar facilities. Because a lot of it has to do with the laws and the way they are on the books. And they have been since before I was born,” he continued.
Click below to read the full article:
Auto Remarketing