On August 3, to the relief of car dealerships and auto finance companies, the California Supreme Court upheld a standard arbitration clause from an automotive purchase agreement by a 6-1 majority decision in Sanchez v. Valencia Holding Co., LLC, which reversed both the trial court and Court of Appeal’s rulings invalidating the entire arbitration
On July 29, the Consumer Federation of America and the North American Consumer Protection Investigators released their annual survey of consumer complaint data from state and local consumer agencies, which is based on 280,000 claims to thirty-seven agencies from twenty-one states and the District of Columbia.
Just as in 2013, the most common complaints arose
On July 29, the House Financial Services Committee reported House Bill 1737, the “Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act,” to the House for full consideration. If passed, the bill would rescind the CFPB’s March 2013 fair credit guidance to indirect auto lenders (CFPB Bulletin 2013-02), and require the CFPB, when proposing
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuits increased 16 percent from June 2014 to June 2015, according to a report issued by WebRecon. The report also noted that FDCPA lawsuits increased from 885 to 1,129 from May to June this year. According to the report, Fair Credit Reporting Act lawsuits also increased 22.7 percent from
As Troutman Sanders LLP previously reported, earlier this month the Federal Communications Commission issued a sweeping 147-page Declaratory Ruling and Order expanding the definition of an automatic telephone dialer system (ATDS), clarifying revocation of consent, and providing limited exceptions for reassigned numbers, health care, and financial calls and text messages. Since then, three entities
On June 25, Senator Schumer of New York introduced a bill poetically titled the Act to Quell Unnecessary, Intentional, and Encroaching Telephone Calls Act of 2015 (the “QUIET Act”) that would criminalize the knowing use of telemarketing robocalls without the prior express consent of the recipient.
Under the QUIET Act, it would be illegal to
On July 14, 2015, a federal judge in Atlanta denied a law firm’s Motion to Dismiss a claim against it filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) and the Consumer Financial Protection Act or the Dodd-Frank Act (“Dodd-Frank”).
The CFPB filed suit against a
On Friday, July 10, the Federal Communications Commission enacted major changes and clarifications to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (“TCPA”). Approved on a contentious 3-2 vote by the FCC commissioners, the FCC released its Declaratory Ruling and Order (FCC 15-72) formally stating its interpretation of numerous provisions of TCPA.
The TCPA
On July 13, the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, and The Financial Services Roundtable submitted a comment letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in response to the CFPB’s March 10, 2015 Consumer Arbitration Study.
This Arbitration Study has been widely viewed as potentially laying the groundwork for the abolition of mandatory
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) released a new guidance entitled “Start with Security,” intended to assist businesses in improving their data security practices. Stemming from “basic, fundamental security missteps” identified by the FTC through the more than fifty FTC data security enforcement actions, this suggested guidance provides valuable insight into the issues of concern to