Attorneys general from twenty-two states today announced that Classmates, Inc. which runs the website classmates.com, and Florists Transworld Delivery, Inc. and FTD.com, Inc. (collectively, “FTD”) have agreed to settle allegations that the companies were involved in misleading, unfair, and deceptive trade practices. Although FTD and Classmates did not admit to wrongdoing, they agreed to pay
On May 20, the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology met in an open markup session to consider several proposed bills to reform the rulemaking process at the Federal Communications Commission. Specifically, Subcommittee members offered numerous bills targeting what they referred to in a published memo as a “variety of process failures” at the FCC.
On April 29, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Maryland Attorney General’s Office jointly filed a Complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland accusing a title service company and several mortgage loan officers of participating in an illegal kickback scheme whereby the company would funnel money and marketing services to
On April 14, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and the Navajo Nation filed a Complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico seeking monetary penalties against a tax-preparation franchise and its ownership for allegedly running an illegal tax refund scheme. The plaintiffs specifically claim that this franchise violated the Consumer
Ten state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission this month announced that they had secured consent judgments against a number of companies that had engaged in a telemarketing campaign involving billions of robocalls.
The regulators alleged that the robocalls incorporated sales pitches for cruise vacations with political surveys.
Although political surveys are not barred
On February 12, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that it had filed a complaint against one mortgage company, All Financial Services, and had entered consent orders against two others, Flagship Financial Group and American Preferred Lending, based on claims that the companies had deceptively implied that they were affiliated with the United States government.
The Federal Trade Commission has released a Staff Report addressing the “Internet of Things” – a phrase referring to everyday items that are able to connect to the internet and transmit data. The Internet of Things includes over 25 billion connected devices worldwide, including fitness trackers, connected appliances, and more. Estimates are that by 2020,
A settlement between the New York Department of Financial Services and automotive lender Condor Capital Corp., as well as Condor’s owner, Stephen Barron, was approved this week by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The settlement will result in total payments to the State and consumers of up to
On December 29, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a report calling for stricter and more extensive regulations to the Military Lending Act. The report, titled The Extension of High-Cost Credit to Servicemembers and Their Families, comes on the heels of a recent action by the CFPB, in which Virginia and North Carolina
Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell has announced that he has settled claims against Stonebridge Benefit Services, Inc., a company that markets discount membership programs, and J.C. Penney Company, Inc., from which Stonebridge obtained consumer credit card information.
Texas-based Stonebridge sells membership programs that provide discounts for various goods and services. Customers’ credit cards are subject