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On November 5, 2025, a national debt collection trade group and one of its members filed a lawsuit against the state of Colorado’s in an attempt to block its 2023 medical debt credit reporting law, HB 23-1126. The complaint alleges that the law, which bars adverse medical debt information from consumer credit reports and restricts related collection communications, is preempted by the Fair Credit Reporting Act and violates the First Amendment.Continue Reading Colorado’s Medical Debt Reporting Law Challenged in Federal Court

On November 3, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia granted class certification certified a statewide class of borrowers challenging a credit union’s alleged assessment of unauthorized “pay-to-pay” fees under the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act. The plaintiff alleged that the institution imposed a 5 dollar fee each time consumers made monthly payments by phone or other electronic means, even though neither the loan agreement nor any statute authorized the charge.Continue Reading West Virginia Federal Court Certifies Class Action Challenging “Pay-to-Pay” Fees

On October 7, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied a fintech company’s motion to compel arbitration in a putative class action. The plaintiffs, both servicemembers, allege that the company’s earned wage access (EWA) product violates the Military Lending Act (MLA), the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), and the Georgia Payday Lending Act (GPLA).Continue Reading District Court Denies Arbitration of Service Members’ Class Action Claims Under Military Lending Act Holding That Earned Wage Access Constitutes Extension of Consumer Credit

On September 12, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky upheld the Federal Reserve Board’s Regulation II cap on debit-card interchange fees, rejecting a merchant’s Administrative Procedure Act challenge. The court concluded the rule is neither “contrary to law” nor “arbitrary and capricious,” interpreting the Dodd-Frank Act’s Durbin Amendment under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act to permit consideration of certain transaction-related costs when setting the cap.Continue Reading Kentucky Federal Court Upholds Federal Reserve’s Debit-Card Fee Cap

On September 8, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington denied an earned wage access provider’s motion to dismiss a putative class action brought by a servicemember. The plaintiff alleged that the company’s cash advance product violated the Military Lending Act (MLA) and the Truth in Lending Act (TILA).Continue Reading District Court Allows Class Action Claims Against EWA Provider to Proceed Under TILA and MLA

On August 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed a lower court decision that had temporarily blocked mass layoffs at the CFPB. The case arose after the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) challenged Acting Director Russell Vought’s directives suspending the Bureau’s funding draw, halting all supervisory and enforcement activity, and placing employees in limbo (previously discussed here). The NTEU argued that these moves, which paved the way for large-scale layoffs, violated separation of powers principles by undermining Congress’s statutory design for the CFPB.Continue Reading D.C. Circuit Clears Path for CFPB Layoffs

On August 7, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of a putative class action alleging violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act (WCPA) against a company offering a “HomeOwner Agreement” product. The plaintiffs claimed the arrangement functioned as a reverse mortgage loan subject to the Washington Consumer Loan Act (WCLA) and Washington Reverse Mortgage Act (WRMA), and that the defendant failed to comply with licensing, counseling, and other statutory requirements.Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Revives Washington Consumer Protection Claims over “HomeOwner Agreement”

On August 6, the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota vacated the Federal Reserve’s 2011 Regulation II interchange fee cap rule, finding that the rule allegedly exceeded the FRB’s authority under the Durbin Amendment of the Dodd-Frank Act. The court determined that the Board improperly included costs unrelated to specific transactions in calculating the interchange fee cap.Continue Reading Federal Court Vacates Federal Reserve’s Interchange Fee Rule

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 July 8, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated the FTC’s “click-to-cancel” Negative Option Rule, holding that the FTC violated the FTC Act and the Administrative Procedure Act when it finalized the rule (previously discussed here). The court found that the FTC wrongly determined that the economic effect of the proposed rule would be under $100 million, and accordingly declined to conduct a preliminary regulatory analysis that would have identified alternative approaches. The failure to do this analysis deprived businesses the opportunity for participation in the rulemaking process. Because that procedural error affected the rule as a whole—including the requirement that cancellation mechanisms be as simple as enrollment—the court vacated the rule in its entirety. Although the rule included a severability clause, the court found that partial enforcement was not feasible given the scope of the defect and the prejudice to petitioners.Continue Reading Eighth Circuit Vacates FTC’s “Click-to-Cancel” Negative Option Rule

On June 12, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied a motion to vacate a November 2024 stipulated final judgement and order requiring a Chicago-based mortgage broker to pay a $105,000 civil money penalty and adopt five-year compliance plan.Continue Reading Illinois District Court Denies Motion to Vacate CFPB Redlining Settlement