Minnesota Session Laws - 1996, Regular Session

  
    
KEY: stricken = old language to be removed
     underscored = new language to be added
    
                            CHAPTER 343-H.F.No. 2525 
                  An act relating to commerce; providing for the 
                  relocation of an existing new motor vehicle dealership 
                  under certain specified conditions. 
        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
           Section 1.  [RELOCATION OF EXISTING NEW MOTOR VEHICLE 
        DEALERSHIP.] 
           (a) When a new motor vehicle dealership is located in a 
        city in the taconite relief area and a portion of the city has 
        been displaced by mining activities, Minnesota Statutes, section 
        80E.14, does not apply to a proposed relocation of the 
        dealership provided the new location is within a three mile 
        radius of the existing location and a request to relocate is 
        made before December 31, 1996. 
           (b) The manufacturer may not withhold consent to a 
        relocation satisfying the requirements of paragraph (a) unless 
        the physical facility to which the existing new motor vehicle 
        dealership proposes to relocate fails to meet the reasonable 
        standards consistently applied by the manufacturer in its 
        establishment or relocation of other new motor vehicle 
        dealerships in the five years immediately preceding the request 
        for relocation.  Factors apart from the facility itself, 
        including but not limited to the proximity of the proposed 
        facility to other existing dealerships, may not be considered in 
        determining whether the facility meets the reasonable standards 
        used by the manufacturer.  The burden of proof shall be upon the 
        manufacturer to show that the proposed facility does not meet 
        the standards consistently applied by the manufacturer in the 
        past five years, and that those standards are reasonable in 
        light of the harm that would be suffered by the existing new 
        motor vehicle dealership if the relocation is not approved. 
           Sec. 2.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
           Section 1 is effective the day following final enactment. 
           Presented to the governor March 14, 1996 
           Signed by the governor March 18, 1996, 10:58 a.m.