Oklahoma Legislative Update

Last year Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry signed a bill into law that added forestry, construction, industrial, maintenance and paving equipment to the current buyback and warranty laws.

This year the Oklahoma Legislature approved a bill that amended the definitions used in the Repurchase of Inventory, Manufacturers, Distributors, and Whole-salers chapter. The legislation adds a definition for a “single line dealer” to mean a business that has purchased at least 75% of the dealer’s total new inventory from a single supplier and has an annual average sales volume for the previous three years that exceeds twenty million dollars for the dealer’s entire territory.

While this was referred to by some as the “CAT carve out”, the language passed would seem to include more than Caterpillar’s dealers in the group that will no longer fall under the definition of “retailer” or “equipment dealer” or “equipment dealership” in Section 245 through 251 of Oklahoma State Statutes.

Governor Henry has signed the bill with an effective date of November 1, 2010. As with the bill passed last year, our Association did not oppose the “single line dealer” legislation.