By all accounts, 2014 was a particularly busy one for the Federal Trade Commission in taking enforcement actions in the automobile sales and financing industry. The FTC’s last public action of 2014 in the auto finance and sales area involved a suburban Dallas dealer, charged with using deceptive ads to promote the sale and lease
Dish Network Gets Served: An Illinois Court Finds Massive Exposure for Violations of Telemarketing and Do-Not-Call Restrictions
On December 12, 2014, an Illinois federal judge found Dish Network LLC liable for participating in millions of unwanted telemarketing sales calls, where Dish Network could be subject to penalties exceeding $1 billion. Specifically, the District Court for the Central District of Illinois issued an opinion in United States of America v. Dish Network LLC
FTC Alleges Deceptive Advertising in Suits Against Two Car Dealership Chains
The FTC announced this week that it was bringing claims against two auto dealership chains alleging that they had violated the terms of two 2012 administrative orders prohibiting the dealerships from misrepresenting financing and lease terms in their advertising.
First, the FTC sued the Billion Auto dealerships – a chain of 20 dealerships in Iowa,
Ohio Court Holds That Cell Phone Subscriber Who Never Received Unwanted Call Has Standing to Sue Under the TCPA
In the latest of a series of “whodunit” cases, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio held that a subscriber who did not answer a single call that allegedly violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act still had standing to sue under the statute. In Maraan v. Dish Network LLC (Civil Action
CFPB Requires Major Credit Reporting Agencies to Inform on Furnishers
On December 11, 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a report and announced that it will be requiring major credit reporting agencies (CRAs) to provide regular reports to the CFPB identifying, by name, potentially problematic furnishers of information. In other words, the CFPB will be co-opting the major CRAs into helping the CFPB
Troutman Sanders Attorneys Publish Law360 Piece on DriveTime Settlement
As we previously reported here, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s settlement with DriveTime provides several warnings to financial services institutions regarding their fair credit reporting and fair debt collection compliance. In a recent piece published in Law360, available here, Troutman Sanders attorneys Alan Wingfield, Paige Fitzgerald, and Nick Klaiber elaborated on their analysis
First Large Auto Lender to Move to Flat Rate Financing Experiences Sharp Drop in Originations
As we have been reporting since 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s attacks on what it considers discriminatory and subjective dealer pricing of finance rates should be seen as nothing less than an outright attempt to reshape the auto finance industry. These regulatory actions have continued in earnest through the present, as we’ve discussed
Honda Becomes Latest CFPB Indirect Lending Target
The lending arm of Honda Motor Co., America Honda Finance Corp., has just revealed in a recent public filing that the U.S. Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have authorized an enforcement action against the company for violations of law arising out of its indirect lending practices. Honda stated that the CFPB
Study by Consumer Credit Group Takes Issue with CFPB Method of Finding Auto Lending Bias
The American Financial Services Association (AFSA), a consumer credit industry trade association, released a study this month that took issue with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s method of measuring discrimination in the automotive lending business.
The study, which was carried out by Charles River Associates and based on over eight million vehicle finance contracts issued
Challenges to Disparate Impact May be Gaining Steam
One of the most controversial and significant federal regulatory initiatives in consumer finance is the view of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that credit discrimination can be proven by statistical disparities.
We previously reported here on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear a disparate impact case in Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs