On February 20, 2024, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a letter warning California-chartered banks and credit unions with assets under $10 billion that charging surprise overdraft fees and returned deposited item fees is likely an unfair business practice that violates California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL), Bus. & Prof. Code,…
On April 17, 2024, the New York State Attorney General (NY AG) announced that it entered into an Assurance of Discontinuance (AOD) with a national bank, resolving allegations related to the bank’s debt collection practices. The bank is a nationally chartered bank that issues debit cards, prepaid cards, payroll cards, and gift cards, primarily through third-party servicers, many of whom…
On April 17, 2024, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with BloomTech Inc., d/b/a Bloom Institute of Technology (BloomTech), and BloomTech’s CEO, Austen Allred, resolving allegations that the company’s practices with respect to income-share agreements (ISAs) violated various consumer protection statutes. BloomTech, formerly known…
On March 8, 2024, the Minnesota Attorney General announced that it had filed a lawsuit against four solar companies for allegedly violating Minnesota Prevention of the Consumer Fraud Act (“MCFA”), the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the False Statement in Advertising Act (“FSAA”), and Chapter 56 of the Minnesota Regulated Loan Act. The…
On February 2, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued an order permanently banning several companies and their owners from the telemarketing and debt relief businesses and requiring them to pay approximately $19 million in restitution and civil money penalties. This order came as a…
On January 9, 2024, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) announced that it entered into a consent order with an internet-based financial services company that allows online merchants to offer payment in installments to its customers. The DFPI alleged that the company violated the California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) by failing to disclose…
On January 2, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it had reached a settlement with a California-based lead generator resolving allegations that the company facilitated illegal telemarketing calls. This lead generator owned the domain to several websites and sold thousands of leads to third parties for telemarketing purposes. The…
On October 12, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a consent order and a stipulation against a parent credit reporting agency and two of its subsidiaries for for alleged violations of the Fair Credit Report Act (FCRA) and the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA). The CFPB alleged that as early as…
On August 17, 2023, the CFPB announced that it had taken enforcement action against a Florida-based mortgage lending and servicing corporation, as well as a New York-based real estate brokerage firm, issuing consent orders against the businesses for “exchanging things of value return for mortgage loan referrals”, in violation of Section 8(a)…
On May 30, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had finalized a consent order with one of the nation’s largest credit and debit card providers in an administrative action regarding alleged violations of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA), as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 1693o-2, and its implementing regulation,…
On February 23, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it entered into a consent order with an auto lender based in Georgia. The order resolves allegations that the lender engaged in unfair practices and predatory lending as to military families on auto title loans in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), 12…
On November 2, 2022, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that a group of companies offering lead generation services violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”), 16 C.F.R. Part 310, and Pennsylvania consumer protection law, 73 P.S. §§ 201-3 and 201-4, by engaging in…
On July 27, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint and proposed consent order in a federal district court alleging that a mortgage company intentionally discriminated against families living in majority-minority neighborhoods around Philadelphia in violation of the Fair Housing Act…
On April 12, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a lawsuit in federal court against TransUnion, two of its subsidiaries, and its longtime executive for failing to implement requirements of the CFPB’s 2017 law enforcement order to TransUnion, and for violating Regulation V, which…
This month the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) doubled-down on its earlier warning that the end of 2021 could see widespread foreclosures as COVID-19-related protections expire, by issuing guidance to mortgage servicers, and a notice of proposed rulemaking, regarding actions mortgage servicers can take to deal with the onslaught. On…
On February 3, 2021, California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) announced that it has commenced its first formal enforcement action and launched a separate investigation into student loan debt relief companies. Goodwin previously provided an overview of three new California consumer finance laws that became effective in January 2021,…
On June 18, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced the launch of its pilot advisory opinion (AO) program. The CFPB quickly followed this announcement by publishing a procedural rule implementing the pilot AO program, as well as a proposed procedural rule that would establish a permanent AO program…
On May 6, 2019, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in CFPB v. Seila Law LLC, No. 7-56324. Seila Law LLC is a law firm that provides debt-relief services to consumers. The CFPB filed a petition to force Seila Law to…
On March 12, 2019, the issue of whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) leadership structure violates Article II and the separation of powers established by the United States Constitution was argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in CFPB v. All American Check Cashing, Inc, et…
On April 2, 2018, the Superior Court of Suffolk County, Massachusetts denied Equifax, Inc.’s motion to dismiss the Commonwealth’s case against it related to the company’s widely publicized 2017 data breach. Although the ruling does not determine who will ultimately prevail in the action, it outlines several key considerations for…