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Brooke Conkle offers consumer-facing companies compliance counseling and litigation services to help them address federal and state consumer protection laws. Recognizing the challenges facing financial services companies, she provides in-depth analysis of complex issues related to consumer protection and compliance.

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office filed suit against two automobile dealerships and their owner in the Superior Court of New Jersey, alleging that the dealerships should be closed and their owner barred from the industry because they targeted financially vulnerable consumers with a variety of unconscionable and deceptive business practices.

According to the AG’s

The Federal Trade Commission has announced that it is retaining the CAN-SPAM Rule as is, deciding to keep the Rule unchanged as a result of a regulatory review. Hence, any business that sends marketing email must redouble efforts to comply with the CAN-SPAM Rule.

What is the CAN-SPAM Rule?

The CAN-SPAM Rule establishes requirements for

On January 28, Crunch Fitness filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the Court to overturn the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Marks v. Crunch San Diego.  Crunch contends that the Ninth Circuit rewrote the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (“ATDS”) and contradicted the plain text and

A Connecticut-based automobile finance company settled a claim by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office that the finance company facilitated the sale of defective vehicles by a group of Massachusetts car dealerships.  As part of the settlement, Sensible Auto Lending LLC has agreed to provide debt relief in the amount of $733,925. 

According to the Massachusetts

On January 3, 49 state attorneys general announced a settlement with Career Education Corporation (“CEC”), a for-profit education company, to resolve claims that CEC engaged in unfair and deceptive practices.  The settlement requires CEC to forgo any collection efforts against $493.7 million in outstanding loan debt held by nearly 180,000 former students.  It also imposes

On December 12, the Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules that will establish a reassigned telephone number database that companies can use to check their call lists.  As an incentive to use the database, the FCC has provided a safe harbor:  companies will not face liability for calls to reassigned numbers caused by database error. 

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection has continued its series of guidelines specifically addressing servicemembers’ purchases of automobiles.  Recent posts on the Bureau’s blog have provided advice for servicemembers on shopping for auto financing, options for buying new cars versus used cars, as well as recommendations on how to trade in a vehicle.

With regard

The Federal Trade Commission announced in mid-July that it conducted the first compliance sweep of car dealerships since the effective date of its revised Used Car Rule requiring use of a new Buyers Guide sticker.  The sweep took place between April and June 2018 in 20 cities nationwide.  The FTC coordinated its efforts with

On May 21, President Donald Trump signed a bill repealing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Bulletin 2013-02, a controversial bulletin addressing auto finance.  As we reported here, the House passed a resolution officially disapproving of the Bulletin in early May, following in the footsteps of the Senate, which passed the same resolution a few

On Monday, May 14, 2018, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) issued a public notice seeking comment on interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) in light of the D.C. Circuit’s decision in ACA International v. FCC. The notice reflects an intent by the FCC to take up the proper interpretation of the TCPA