Dealer Settles Suit by Immigrants

ALHAMBRA, Calif.--A dealer settled suit over allegations of exploiting Chinese immigrants' limited English to charge them excessive interest rates. Wondries Toyota agreed last week to pay 11 plaintiffs an undisclosed financial sum and gave them each an apology letter. The settlement also required the dealer to place a 4.5 percent cap on markups.

by Staff

April 19, 2004

1 min to read

ALHAMBRA, Calif.--A dealer settled suit over allegations of exploiting Chinese immigrants' limited English to charge them excessive interest rates. Wondries Toyota agreed last week to pay plaintiffs an undisclosed financial sum and gave them each an apology letter. The settlement also required the dealer to place a 4.5 percent cap on markups.

The suit, filed in 2002, claimed Wondries falsely told Mandarin-speaking customers they had bad credit and charged them high interest rates, according to Election Watchdog. It also alleged that employees included hidden charges in the written contracts, which the immigrants couldn't read.

The Wondries lawsuit prompted a California law aimed at protecting Asian customers. Starting July, dealers will have to provide translated loan contracts for customers who speak primarily Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese or Tagalog. According to the Los Angeles Times, these are the four most common Asian languages in the state.

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