On August 12, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an order related to the advertising of mortgage rates that may provide valuable insight into the CFPB’s broader perspective on what constitutes misleading statements in advertising and publishing of rates.
The CFPB accused Amerisave Mortgage Corporation (“Amerisave”), its affiliate company Novo Appraisal Management Company (“Novo”), and
State Attorneys General from Washington, Oregon and Vermont filed suit against Living Essentials, the manufacturer of the popular energy supplement, 5-Hour ENERGY®, for allegedly deceptive marketing. The lawsuits seek injunctive relief as well as civil penalties and restitution to consumers. In a statement late last week, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said, “[p]lainly and simply,
On August 20, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission jointly filed an amicus brief in Hernandez v. Williams, Zinman & Parham, P.C. The case concerns the interpretation and enforcement of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and is currently on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
On January 2, 2014, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits collection agencies from charging consumers a percentage fee of the balance of their debt unless the consumer has explicitly agreed to such a fee arrangement. In Bradley v. Franklin Collection Services, Inc., a unanimous
Employers utilizing background checks in their applicant screening process often battle two competing forces – the need to screen and hire employees quickly and the requirement that they wait a reasonable time before taking adverse action under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recently issued a decision
As we discussed here, regulators have been keeping close watch on USA Discounters. Today, the CFPB announced that it has “ordered the company to refund $350,000 to service members tricked into paying fees for benefits available for free.” Last week, several senators wrote a letter urging the CFPB to investigate the findings of a
The Federal Reserve recently published its quarterly “Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices,” based on a survey of large domestic and foreign banks. The survey suggested that the implementation of Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgage rule has resulted in lenders making fewer loans. Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer
In a June 2 decision, Judge Richard Posner, writing for a unanimous panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, criticized a number of statements and other aspects within a notice of class action settlement that had been approved by the district court. In response to a number of objections
In a letter dated July 29, addressed to Richard Cordray, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, two Republicans – Representative Jeb Hensarling, Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, and Mike Crapo, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs – continue to question the validity of the CFPB’s
TCPA litigation is running rampant in courts throughout the country. Automatic telephone dialing systems, or “ATDSs” or “autodialers”, are at the heart of virtually every TCPA case involving cell phones. Why? Because if a call to a person’s cell phone was not made with an ATDS as defined by the statute, there is virtually no