On March 13, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the introduction of the Fostering Affordability and Integrity through Reasonable Business Practices Act (FAIR Business Practices Act). The proposed legislation seeks to extend the state’s existing ban on deceptive business practices to also prohibit unfair and abusive practices, aligning New York with 42 other states. Continue Reading New York Attorney General Proposes Bill to Expand Consumer Protection Law
The CFPB has recently dismissed two more enforcement actions—one against a major credit reporting agency and another against a lease-to-own financing provider. Both lawsuits involved allegations of abusive, unfair, and deceptive acts and practices. Continue Reading CFPB Drops Two More Major Lawsuits
On March 3, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced new regulations, issued under the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act, aimed at curbing “junk fees” by requiring businesses to disclose total prices upfront and provide clear information about additional charges. The regulations, set to take effect September 2, 2025, seek to prevent deceptive pricing practices and enhance consumer transparency.Continue Reading Massachusetts AG Issues New Regulations Targeting Junk Fees
On March 1, and despite recent policy shifts under the new administration, the CFPB sent a letter to the judge overseeing its lawsuit against a fintech lender in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, stating that it would proceed with its filed action. The lawsuit, originally filed in September 2022, alleges violations of the Military Lending Act’s (MLA) restrictions on extensions of credit to covered servicemembers. The complaint further alleges violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act’s (CFPA) prohibitions on unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAPs). Continue Reading CFPB Continues Lawsuit Over Alleged Military Lending Act Violations
On May 20, the CFPB settled an enforcement action against a California-based telemarketing firm for practices related to student loan debt relief services. The Bureau has ordered the firm to permanently halt operations and pay a $400,000 civil money penalty, in addition to ordering the recission of all the firm’s existing contracts with consumers.Continue Reading CFPB Shuts Down Debt Relief Provider Over Fraudulent Student Loan Practices
On January 2, 2024, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced “a sweeping consumer protection and affordability agenda,” what she termed as the “most significant expansion of consumer laws since 1980.” As part of that agenda, she announced expanding UDAAP protections and registration requirements for BNPL providers.Continue Reading New York Governor Consumer Protection Agenda Targets Unfair and Deceptive Practices and BNPL Providers
On September 8, a Texas federal judge ruled that the CFPB exceeded its authority by adopting a sweeping anti-discrimination policy last year. The CFPB adopted the policy in March 2022, via an update to its exam manual, stating that discrimination in any financial product is an “unfair” practice that can trigger liability under the federal prohibition against “unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices” or UDAAPs (we discussed this policy in previous posts here and here). The CFPB offered examples of practices that may be unfair because they are discriminatory, including offering one set of products or services to a certain customer demographic and a greater set of products or services to another customer demographic, providing inferior terms to one customer demographic as compared to another customer demographic, and engaging in targeted marketing or advertising in a discriminatory manner. Continue Reading Texas Court Strikes Down CFPB UDAAP Policy
Recently, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) approved the final rule implementing and interpreting certain sections of the California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) that prohibit persons from engaging in unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP) related to commercial financial products and services and establishes data collection and reporting requirements.Continue Reading California DFPI Finalizes Small Business UDAAP Rule
On July 26, the CFPB released its Summer 2023 Supervisory Highlights reporting unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices (UDAAPs) across a number of consumer financial products, including auto origination, auto servicing, consumer reporting, debt collection, deposits, fair lending, information technology, mortgage origination, mortgage servicing, payday and small dollar lending, and remittances, in violation of the CFPA. Below we focus on some key areas in particular.Continue Reading Latest CFPB Supervisory Highlights Detail UDAAPs Across Range of Areas
On July 19, the CPFB filed a complaint against a lease-to-own finance company, alleging that the company has offered and provided millions of “lease-purchase” and “rental-purchase” financing agreements in ways that have harmed consumers, including through misleading advertisements, insufficient disclosures, and interfering with consumers’ ability to understand the terms and conditions of its financing agreements. The CFPB additionally alleges that the company harmed consumers in servicing its lease-to-own financing products by misrepresenting payment obligations and making false threats in collections. Specifically, the CFPB alleges that the company engaged in the following illegal activity:Continue Reading CFPB Sues Lease-to-Own Finance Company for Allegedly Deceiving Consumers
On December 1, the CFPB and a financial services company filed a stipulated proposed court order seeking the resolution of a CFPB suit alleging that the financial services company made false, misleading, and inaccurate marketing representations to consumers regarding its “high yield” savings account offering. In its original complaint, the CFPB alleged that the financial services company engaged in four separate false representations to consumers in violation of the CFPA:
Continue Reading CFPB Targets Financial Services Company for Deceptive Advertising