On January 12, the CFPB and DOJ withdrew their October 2023 joint statement addressing how creditors’ consideration of immigration or citizenship status may intersect with the ECOA. The joint statement, published in the Federal Register on October 18, 2023, had cautioned that certain creditor policies affecting noncitizen borrowers could, in some circumstances, raise fair lending concerns. Continue Reading CFPB and DOJ Withdraw Joint Statement Addressing ECOA and Noncitizen Borrowers
On November 20, 2025, the CFPB notified staff that it will begin transferring its remaining enforcement lawsuits and other pending litigation to the Department of Justice. The shift comes as the agency anticipates running out of operating funds under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (previously discussed here). Continue Reading CFPB to Begin Transferring Remaining Litigation to DOJ Amid Funding Collapse
On September 30, the FTC and the DOJ announced a settlement resolving allegations that a Massachusetts-based disability-advocacy company and its subsidiary violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule and FTC Act. The FTC alleged that the companies unlawfully contacted consumers through robocalls and calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry to market Social Security Disability Insurance benefits.Continue Reading FTC and DOJ Settle with Disability-Advocacy Company for Alleged Illegal Telemarketing Practices
On July 23, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied the Department of Justice’s motion to terminate a consent order requiring a Pennsylvania bank to implement a five-year fair lending remediation program. The DOJ had previously alleged that the bank violated the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by redlining majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.Continue Reading Federal Court Rejects DOJ’s Request to End Oversight of Pennsylvania Bank’s Redlining Settlement
On June 2, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania terminated a 2022 consent order and dismissed with prejudice the CFPB and DOJ’s redlining lawsuit against a nonbank mortgage lender. The motion to terminate the consent order, filed jointly by the CFPB and DOJ, asserted that the company had fulfilled its monetary and injunctive obligations under the order.Continue Reading CFPB and DOJ Terminate Another Redlining Consent Order
On May 28, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion to terminate its redlining consent order against a New Jersey-based bank. The five-year order, entered in September 2022, resolved allegations that the banks violated the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act by engaging in a pattern of unlawful redlining in majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods across the Newark metropolitan area.Continue Reading DOJ Moves to End $13 Million Redlining Consent Order
On January 7, 2025, the United States Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) announced that a non-depository mortgage lender has agreed to pay $1.75 million in connection with allegations that it engaged in a pattern or practice of lending discrimination by redlining predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.Continue Reading DOJ Announces Third Settlement with a Non-Depository Lender to Resolve Alleged Redlining Claims
On February 22, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed Jonathan Mayer as the Justice Department’s inaugural Chief Science and Technology Advisor and Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer. Mayer will sit in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy and lead the Department’s newly established Emerging Technologies Board which coordinates and governs AI and other emerging technologies across the Department. Mayer will also build a team of technical and policy experts in cybersecurity and AI. The Chief AI Officer position is a role required by President Biden’s Executive Order on AI. Mayer is an assistant professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton University and served as the technology law and policy advisor to then-Senator Kamala Harris as well as the chief technologist to the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau. Continue Reading Justice Department Hire’s First Chief AI Officer
In separate public speeches, senior officials from the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission warned of harsh penalties against individuals and companies misusing AI for fraudulent purposes.Continue Reading DOJ and SEC Officials Issue Harsh Warnings Concerning the Misuse of AI
On October 24, the FTC and the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a $1.1 million settlement with a group of Wisconsin auto dealers for allegedly charging customers illegal junk fees and unlawfully discriminating against American Indian customers. The action was brought under the FTC Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), the Wisconsin Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and the Wisconsin Consumer Act.Continue Reading FTC and Wisconsin DOJ Agree to $1.1M Settlement with Auto Dealers over Unlawful Junk Fees and Discrimination Against American Indian Customers
On October 31, a federal jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri found the defendants, a trade association, which represents residential and commercial real estate industries, and multiple residential brokerages liable for $1.8 billion in damages for conspiring to artificially inflate commissions on home sales. Continue Reading Federal Jury: Trade Association and Real Estate Brokerages Conspired to Inflate Commissions, $1.8B in Damages to Plaintiffs