Ethan Ostroff has been selected by ACA International (Association of Credit and Collection Professionals) to serve in the Attorney State Chair Program for the Commonwealth of Virginia.  The Attorney State Chair Program provides ACA International units and their members with access to an attorney licensed to practice law in their state.  These attorneys have volunteered…

On October 13, Judge Christina A. Snyder of the United States District Court for the Central District of California granted summary judgment in favor of Bank of America and other defendants in a putative Fair Credit Reporting Act class action.  In Robert Berrellez v. Pontoon Solutions, Inc. et al., No. 2:15-cv-01898, the plaintiff alleged …

On October 12, the Sixth Circuit denied Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company’s petition for rehearing en banc on the Court’s decision to revive a putative class action stemming from a 2012 data breach. 

According to the plaintiffs’ class action complaint, hackers who breached Nationwide’s computer network on October 3, 2012, stole the personal information of the …

On October 12, the named plaintiff in a Fair Credit Reporting Act class action asked the Northern District of Illinois to certify her putative class against Costco Wholesale Corporation. 

According to the Complaint, the plaintiff used her credit card to make a purchase at one of Costco’s stores in January 2016.  By the time she …

On October 12, a Pennsylvania federal court granted final approval of a $5.2 million Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action against Power Home Remodeling Group LLC. 

Power Home is a home remodeling company that, according to the class action complaint, uses aggressive telemarketing and door-to-door solicitations to recruit new customers.  Plaintiff alleged that Power Home …

In Igor Vayngurt v. Southwest Credit Systems, L.P., the Eastern District of New York ruled that a debt collector did not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by attempting to obtain payment of a collection fee at the same time as the principal balance of the debt and requesting prompt contact in the …

Government agencies continue to scrutinize third-party payment processors for high-risk transactions and, when appropriate, respond to alleged violations with investigations and enforcement actions.  Industry members are most likely familiar with the numerous enforcement actions brought in recent years by the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Department of Justice.  Recently, however,…

On December 14, the FTC, along with a coalition of 13 states and the District of Columbia, entered into a settlement agreement with Ashley Madison over allegations that the online dating site deceived consumers and failed to protect 36 million users’ account and profile information in relation to a massive July 2015 data breach.  …

The Security Standards Council of the Payment Card Industry (“PCI”) announced updates to its payment device standard, which will enable stronger protections for cardholder data, including data such as cardholders’ personal identification numbers (PINs) and cardholder data stored on the magnetic stripe of cards or on mobile devices.  The updated standard addresses the increased threats …

In a case with important positive implications for banks conducting federally-required background checks on job applicants and employees, in Amanda Mix v. JPMorgan Chase, No. 2:15-cv-01102-JJT, the United States District Court for the District of Arizona granted JPMorgan Chase’s summary judgment motion on Plaintiff’s background screening class action. Plaintiff claimed that Chase violated the Fair…