Photo of Stephen C. Piepgrass

Stephen leads the firm’s Regulatory Investigations, Strategy + Enforcement (RISE) Practice Group. He focuses his practice on enforcement actions, investigations, and litigation. Stephen primarily represents clients engaging with, or being investigated by, state attorneys general and other state or local governmental enforcement bodies, including the CFPB and FTC, as well as clients involved with litigation, with a particular focus on heavily regulated industries. He also has experience advising clients on data and privacy issues, including handling complex investigations into data incidents by state attorneys general other state and federal regulators. Additionally, Stephen provides strategic counsel to Troutman Pepper’s Strategies clients who need assistance with public policy, advocacy, and government relations strategies.

The FTC has reached a proposed consent agreement with Victory Media, Inc., resolving allegations that Victory violated Section 5 of the FTC Act.  The allegations stem from Victory’s promotion of post-secondary schools to members of the armed forces.

Victory advertises to members of the armed forces in a variety of ways, including through its publications

On October 4, Judge Anne Thompson of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey preliminarily approved a $2.5 million settlement agreement in a proposed class action suit against Heartland Payment Systems.

The agreement would settle a lawsuit, filed by plaintiff Rudel Corporation, which alleges that Heartland charged its customers unauthorized fees

Recent attempts by The Häagen-Dazs Shoppe Company, Inc., Nestlé Dreyer’s Ice Cream Company, and Nestlé USA, Inc. to have a Telephone Consumer Protection Act putative class action dismissed proved unsuccessful after the United States District Court for the Northern District of California found that the “thank you” text messages at issue could arguably constitute telemarketing.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a press release earlier today alerting the media and other interested parties that it will announce a “major coordinated consumer fraud enforcement initiative” Friday, October 13 at 11:30 a.m. EST.

The Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, Thomas Pahl, and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan will

On October 5, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) called for national standards for data breach notification and data security. While voicing concerns about a “Washington-forced technology solution,” Hensarling said, “We do need a consistent national standard for both data security and breach notification in order to better protect our consumers, hold companies

Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or the “Bureau”) issued a new rule that will have a significant impact on the payday lending market. The CFPB will now require lenders to conduct a “full-payment test” to determine upfront whether the borrower will have the ability to repay the loan when it becomes due. Lenders

On September 21, the Department of Justice cleared the way for a group of the twenty-four largest U.S. banks to create a real-time payment system that will permit immediate transfer of funds between financial institutions.  The system was proposed by The Clearing House Payments Co., LLC (“TCH”), a joint venture between the twenty-four banks that

On September 20, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued proposed policy guidance that would modify a mortgage disclosure law in an effort to protect applicants’ and borrowers’ privacy.

In 2015, the CFPB finalized changes to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (“HMDA”), which requires lenders to report and disclose to the public certain information about their

On September 5, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau signed a consent order against payday and installment loan company Zero Parallel LLC and its president and primary owner for acts the CFPB alleged were unfair, deceptive, and abusive.  The order concludes the matter initiated by a complaint filed against the owner of Zero Parallel and another

On September 19, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a complaint, together with a proposed consent order, against Top Notch Funding II, LLC, Rory Donadio, and John “Gene” Cavalli, alleging that the defendants engaged in deceptive practices in offering loans to consumers who are awaiting payments from settlements or victim compensation funds.  These