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On September 17, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) published Circular 2024-05 (Circular) addressing whether a financial institution violates the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) and Regulation E by charging overdraft fees for ATM and one-time debit card transactions without proof of the consumer’s affirmative consent to enrollment in covered overdraft services. (According to the CFPB’s press release, the Bureau considers this to be a “phantom opt-in.”) The Bureau’s response is clear: Yes, charging fees in these circumstances can indeed constitute a violation of EFTA and Regulation E.

In a recent ruling, the District of Colorado granted several motions to dismiss filed by the developers and owners of cryptocurrency application Atomic Wallet, citing a lack of personal jurisdiction. This decision effectively ends a class action litigation involving the alleged theft of cryptocurrency assets by North Korean hackers.

According to a recent report by WebRecon, court filings under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) were down for the month of July, but filings the under Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) were up for the month. Year-to-date everything is up compared to 2023, particularly CFPB complaints which have increased over 90% year-to-date!

On September 9, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada granted summary judgment in favor of a debt collector in a case involving alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) based on phone calls the plaintiff received related to her medical debt.

On August 27, U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) introduced the “Unleashing AI Innovation in Financial Services Act” (S. 4951), a bill aimed at fostering artificial intelligence (AI) innovation within the financial services industry. According to his press release, this legislation is part of a broader set of five bipartisan AI bills that Senator Rounds has released for consideration by Congress this fall.

Dear Mary,

I work for a public company that recently experienced a ransomware attack. Fortunately, we were able to restore our business operations quickly by obtaining a decryption key from the threat actor. Given that we managed to get back up and running so swiftly, do we still need to determine whether the incident is material and report it?

Sincerely,

– Concerned Executive

On October 9, 2024, at 4 p.m. CT, the Fifth Circuit will hear oral arguments in the ongoing litigation challenging the FTC’s Combating Auto Retail Scams (CARS) Rule. The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) and the Texas Automobile Dealers Association (TADA) have raised significant procedural and data-based objections to the rule, which purportedly aims to curb deceptive sales practices and eliminate “junk fees” in the car-buying process.