On March 17, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it is rescinding its 2020 rule governing Fair Housing Act (FHA) disparate impact claims and restoring its 2013 discriminatory effects rule on the basis that it believes the 2013 rule is more consistent with how the FHA has been applied in
In February, Massachusetts Attorney General Joy Campbell announced a $6.5 million settlement with Safe Home Security, its CEO, and affiliated companies to resolve allegations that their practices violated state consumer protection laws by “trapping Massachusetts consumers in long-term auto renewal contracts” and engaging in illegal debt collection practices, among other activities.
According to the Consent
On March 2, Florida State Representative Doug Bankston introduced HB1353, the Florida Commercial Financing Disclosure Law, that would mandate covered commercial financing companies provide consumer-like disclosures for certain commercial financing transactions. The law would also define and prohibit specific acts by brokers of those transactions, including the collection of advance fees. New York, California, Utah
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it is launching an inquiry into the small business credit reporting industry. Specifically, it is ordering five firms to provide detailed information about their products and processes.
According to the FTC, the impetus for this inquiry is that unlike consumer reports, which are governed by the Fair Credit
On March 16, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a compliance bulletin entitled Unfair Billing and Collection Practices After Bankruptcy Discharges of Certain Student Loan Debts. The compliance bulletin focused on the treatment of certain private student loans following a bankruptcy discharge. It’s also another example of the CFPB’s efforts to expand bankruptcy
On March 15, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a Request for Information (Request) seeking public comment on the business practices of data brokers and how they impact the daily lives of consumers. Specifically, the CFPB is interested in hearing details about the types of data that data brokers collect and sell, as well
In a class action lawsuit against Pisa Group, Inc. for alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the plaintiff moved to certify a class of all persons in the United States who received more than one telephone solicitation call from defendant more than 31 days after registering their phone numbers with the National
On March 10, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation closed Silicon Valley Bank and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as its receiver. Silicon Valley Bank had 17 branches in California and Massachusetts. The FDIC transferred all deposits and assets of the former bank to a newly created, full-service FDIC-operated bridge bank
As discussed here, on July 27, 2022, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals sua sponte vacated the district court’s approval of a $35 million class-action settlement in Drazen and Godaddy.com, LLC (Godaddy) v. Pinto. Although the parties had not briefed the issue before the Eleventh Circuit, the court ruled that the class definition
To help you keep abreast of relevant activities, below find a breakdown of some of the biggest events at the federal and state levels to impact the Consumer Finance Services industry this past week: