Chase Nissan LLC, doing business as Manchester City Nissan in Manchester, Connecticut, advertised vehicles as “certified pre-owned” and then charged customers a separate certification fee for the exact same certification the car was already advertised as having, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The dealership also buried additional unauthorized charges, including something called “total loss protection,” inside financing paperwork without customers’ knowledge or consent. On August 19, 2026, the FTC and the Connecticut Attorney General’s office announced a $4 million settlement to unwind it, following a lawsuit the two agencies filed jointly in January 2024.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong did not soften the language in his own office’s statement: “Manchester City Nissan systematically ripped-off Connecticut customers through needless, unauthorized junk fees,” and the settlement, he said, will “send millions of dollars back to customers.” FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Christopher Mufarrige framed the enforcement principle behind the case plainly: “Price transparency is essential for protecting consumers from deception and for preserving the integrity of competitive markets.”

How The Double-Charge Actually Worked

A certified pre-owned vehicle carries a specific meaning in the industry: the manufacturer or dealer has performed an inspection and certification process, usually justifying a higher price than a comparable non-certified used car. According to the FTC, Manchester City Nissan advertised cars with that CPO status already priced in — then charged buyers again for the certification process as if it had not already happened, on top of the premium the CPO label had already added to the sticker price.

Layered on top of that, the dealership added charges like total loss protection into financing agreements without disclosing them or securing the buyer’s actual consent, according to both the FTC and Connecticut AG releases. The FTC’s data on the dealership showed customers were, in the agency’s words, “frequently charged thousands in unlawful fees” across these combined practices — not a one-time mistake on a single deal, but a repeatable pattern built into how the dealership structured its paperwork.

What The Settlement Actually Requires

Beyond the $4 million in consumer redress, the settlement, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut and approved by a 2-0 FTC commission vote, requires the dealership to clearly disclose the maximum total price of a vehicle as the single most prominent figure in its advertising, obtain express and informed consent for every additional charge before it hits a customer’s paperwork, and stop making any misrepresentation about a vehicle’s certification status or warranty coverage.

The case took more than two and a half years to move from filed complaint to signed settlement, a timeline that reflects how document-heavy these disputes actually are — regulators had to trace individual finance contracts, cross-reference which vehicles were advertised as CPO before the fee was added, and build a pattern out of what could otherwise look like isolated paperwork errors. That same document trail is exactly what an individual buyer can replicate on a much smaller scale before ever signing anything.

The Line-By-Line Checklist Before You Sign

• If a vehicle is advertised as “certified pre-owned,” ask directly whether a separate certification fee appears anywhere in your paperwork — and if it does, ask what specific service it pays for that isn’t already covered by the advertised CPO status.
• Read every line item in the financing agreement itself, not just the sales contract. Fees like total loss protection, GAP coverage, and etch protection are frequently added at the financing stage where buyers pay the least attention.
• Ask for a written, itemized breakdown of every fee before signing anything, and confirm the total matches the advertised price plus only the fees you were told about and agreed to.
• If a fee appears on your final paperwork that you never discussed or authorized, that is grounds to refuse to sign or to demand it be removed on the spot.
• Compare the advertised price against the out-the-door price before you ever sit down at the finance desk — any gap between the two numbers should be explained fee by fee, not bundled into a single “processing” line.

What this case demonstrates is not a single bad actor doing something exotic. It is a standard financing-desk playbook — advertise one number, collect a higher one through fees buried in paperwork most people don’t read line by line — that only became a $4 million problem because two government agencies spent over two years building a case against one dealership. The paperwork trick itself is common enough that the checklist above applies to nearly any used car lot, certified or not.