On February 6, 2025, the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois declined to issue a preliminary injunction to stop an Illinois “swipe fee” law that would ban certain credit and debit card fees from applying to credit unions while extending a previous preliminary injunction to apply to out-of-state banks. (See our previous coverage of this litigation here, here, and here). Continue Reading Illinois ‘Swipe Fee’ Law Faces Continued Pushback as Court Partially Extends Injunction
On January 24, 2025, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down an FTC rule aimed at curbing deceptive advertising and sales practices in the auto industry. The rule, which sought to prohibit certain “junk fees” and misleading pricing tactics, was challenged by industry groups who argued that the FTC had exceeded its authority.Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Strikes Down FTC’s ‘Junk Fee’ Rule for Auto Dealers
On December 20, 2024, an Illinois federal court, in considering a motion for a preliminary injunction brought by the Illinois Bankers Association, American Bankers Association, and other trade groups, ruled that national banks and federal savings associations will not be subject to Illinois’ groundbreaking law that, starting on July 1, 2025, would forbid card issuers, payment card networks, acquirer banks and payment processors from charging retailers for swipe fees on gratuities and “any use and occupation tax or excise tax” imposed by the State or a local government. (See here and here for our previous discussions on the law).Continue Reading Banks Win Temporary Reprieve from Novel Illinois Swipe-Fee Law
On November 15, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas overseeing the ongoing legal challenge to the CFPB’s Section 1071 small business lending rule (previously discussed here, here, here, and here), issued an order denying the plaintiff trade groups’ motion to toll the deadlines of the rule while an appeal moves through the Fifth Circuit.Continue Reading Federal Court Denies Request to Delay CFPB’s Small Business Lending Rule as Compliance Deadlines Approach
On November 1, the CFPB filed a proposed stipulated final order that would resolve the Bureau’s pending lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois against a nonbank mortgage lender and broker for allegedly engaging in redlining and other discriminatory lending practices. In its underlying complaint filed in 2020, the CFPB alleged that the defendant violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) by making statements in podcasts, radio shows, and marketing materials that discouraged prospective African-American applicants in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs from applying for mortgage loans.Continue Reading CFPB Reaches Settlement in Redlining Suit Against Nonbank Mortgage Lender
On November 1, a debt collection trade group filed a complaint in federal court challenging an October 1 CFPB advisory opinion that warned debt collectors against seeking payment on unverified or potentially inflated medical bills (we previously discussed the advisory opinion here).Continue Reading Debt Collectors Push Back: Trade Group Sues CFPB Over New Medical Debt Collection Rules
On October 18, a fintech trade group filed a complaint in a D.C. federal court challenging the CFPB’s interpretive rule on Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) products. The rule, released last May, treats BNPL providers as credit card providers under TILA (previously discussed here). The complaint alleges various violations of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), among others, claiming that the CFPB violated the APA’s notice and comment requirements, exceeded its statutory authority when issuing the rule, and acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner in imposing requirements on BNPL providers.Continue Reading Trade Group Challenges CFPB’s Buy Now Pay Later Rule
The banking industry’s efforts to challenge a new Illinois law banning interchange fees, also known as “swipe fees,” on tax and tip payments gained significant momentum when the OCC criticized the law as an “ill-conceived” threat to the “efficient and effective” operation of the banking system in an amicus brief filed in Illinois federal court on October 2. Continue Reading Swipe Fee Saga Continues: OCC and Trade Groups Clash with Illinois AG
On June 14, the CFPB published a press release announcing that its 2017 Payday, Vehicle Title and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans Rule (“Payday Lending Rule”) will go into effect on or about March 30, 2025. According to the Bureau, the rule will target unfair and abusive practices in short-term installment lending and will aim to curb lenders’ efforts to repeatedly withdraw payments from a borrower’s bank account, even after knowing the borrower’s account was shown to have insufficient funds. The CFPB determined such debiting practices rarely benefited lenders and created negative consequences for borrowers such as overdraft and insufficient fund fees, or even account closures by their banks.Continue Reading Payday Lending Rule Slated to Take Effect, 7 Years Later
On May 3, a California resident filed a class action lawsuit in federal court accusing a Los Angeles-based credit union of discriminatory practices, and raised a civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and violations of the California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act. In the complaint, the plaintiff alleges his automobile loan application was unfairly denied because of his immigration status as a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient.Continue Reading DACA Recipient Accuses California Credit Union of ECOA Violations
On March 25, a coalition of trade groups filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, challenging a Colorado law which would have opted the state Section 521 of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (“DIDMCA”), a federal law enacted to create competitive equality between state-chartered banks and national banks. The law, set to take effect on July 1, 2024, would have subject out-of-state lenders to the state’s rate cap. Continue Reading Lenders Sue to Block Colorado’s Interest Rate ‘Opt-Out’ Law