On February 13, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a blog post warning companies that it could be deemed an unfair or deceptive practice for a company to adopt more permissive data practices and to only inform consumers of such changes through retroactive amendments to its terms of service or privacy policy.
What happens to funds recovered by the trustee after the final plan payment is made in a chapter 13 case? According to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Iowa, absent a plan provision providing otherwise, those funds revert to the debtors.
Virginia is currently one of only two states that does not allow class-action lawsuits in its courts. However, that could change soon as House Bill (HB) 418, originally introduced on January 10, 2024, seeks to create a class-action framework loosely modeled on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. On February 9, HB 418 passed the House of Delegates and will be sent to the Senate for consideration.
On February 12, ten Rhode Island senators introduced S 2275, a bill proposing to opt Rhode Island out of §§ 521-523 of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act (DIDMCA). On February 13, HF 3680 was introduced in Minnesota, proposing to opt-out of DIDMCA expressly as to non-credit card forms of credit. These legislative efforts to opt-out of DIDMCA, coupled with the influx in recent “true lender” legislation, seem to show a coordinated effort to restrict bank-model lending.
As federal student loan repayments resume after a three-year pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published an Issue Spotlight on student borrowers’ experiences, using consumer complaints to identify emerging problems.
On February 6, a bill was introduced to the Illinois House of Representatives seeking to amend the Illinois Dental Practices Act to add provisions related to third-party financing for dental services.
To keep you informed of recent activities, below are several of the most significant federal and state events that have influenced the Consumer Financial Services industry over the past week:
In Perrong v. Chase Data Corp., et al., a court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recently ruled that no personal liability attaches to the owner of a company for Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) violations.
On February 8, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Department of Agriculture Rural Development Rural Housing Service (USDA) v. Kirtz, holding that the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s (FCRA) clear statutory text indicates a government agency can be sued for a FCRA violation. The decision resolved a circuit split. The D.C., Third, and Seventh Circuits have allowed FCRA litigation against government agencies, but the Fourth and Ninth Circuits have found governmental immunity prevents such suits.
Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a unanimous ruling that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA) restrictions on the use of “artificial or prerecorded voices” apply to AI technology that generate such voices.