A federal district court in Florida entered summary judgment against SeaWorld in a class action case, finding the theme park violated the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA) by renewing class members’ contracts during their one-year term and collecting unauthorized payments after the contracts expired.
Lead Plaintiff Jason Herman commenced the action in December 2014, alleging
On May 15, the United States Supreme Court reversed and remanded a state court decision that invalidated an arbitration agreement. In a visceral 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court sent a clear message to Kentucky that the state cannot circumvent the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) merely because the court does not like arbitration clauses.
In Kindred
In one of the most significant post-Spokeo decisions to date, the Fourth Circuit unanimously reversed and dismissed a nearly $12 million Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) class action judgment, finding plaintiff, Michael T. Dreher, lacked Article III standing to bring his claims. The decision provides much needed clarity from the Fourth Circuit on the
On May 8, an Arizona federal judge held that a defendant debt collector was not entitled to a “bona fide error” defense in a claim brought under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act because the collector failed to show it had either a policy or procedure in force to address the specific error in the
In its Form 10-Q dated April 25, 2017 for the quarterly period that ended on March 31, 2017, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. announced that it had detected a data security breach in its electronic processing and transmission of confidential customer and employee information. Specifically, Chipotle’s information security team detected unauthorized activity on the network that
On April 28, the Federal Trade Commission published a blog entitled “Background Checks on Prospective Employees: Keep Required Disclosures Simple.” In this online publication, the FTC issued guidance to employers on how to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act if they intend to use a consumer report (commonly referred to as a background check)
On April 26, a group of state bank regulators filed a lawsuit to block the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency from issuing special charters to fintech firms. The regulators argue that the OCC fintech charter will improperly displace already effective state laws regulating fintech companies, that the OCC lacks the authority to issue
On April 27, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a lawsuit in an Illinois federal court against four online installment loan companies operated by a California Native American tribe. Although the tribe operates the installment loan companies, the CFPB’s complaint alleges that the defendants are not “arms of the tribe” and therefore
On April 7, defendants Wolfgang’s Steakhouse, Inc. and ZMF Restaurants LLC again urged a New York federal court judge to dismiss a Fair and Accurate Transactions Act putative class action based on the Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins.
In Fullwood v. Wolfgang’s Steakhouse, Inc., plaintiff Cynthia Fullwood alleged
The United States Supreme Court declined a petition for writ of certiorari by a consumer regarding a collection letter on law firm letterhead with attorney signatures. The ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Tawanda Jones v. David Sean Dufek, Sr. was left in place, holding that a