CDK and Reynolds duopoly locks dealers into DMS contracts with $600M in anticompetitive harm

Two companies, CDK Global and Reynolds and Reynolds, control the dealer management system market and have been sued for conspiring to overcharge dealers and block competitors from accessing dealer data. CDK alone paid $600 million to settle antitrust claims from 244 software vendors it allegedly locked out. This matters because every dealership's inventory, accounting, payroll, and customer data flows through these systems, so switching costs are enormous and dealers pass inflated software fees to consumers. The duopoly persists because OEM certification requirements effectively mandate one of these two systems, and both companies historically refused to share integration APIs with competing vendors.