As a part of her plan to address the homeownership gap for black families in America, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has proposed an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act that will require credit reporting agencies to include rent, cellphone, and utility payments when calculating consumer credit scores.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has
On June 24, the Consumer Education Foundation (“CEF”), a California-based nonprofit consumer organization, filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission requesting that it investigate the use of so-called “Secret Surveillance Scores” in the consumer market. The complaint alleges that consumer data points are covertly tracked and amassed by private firms to create a single
On June 14, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a settlement that effectively forgives $168 million in private student loans owed by former students of ITT Technical Institute, the for-profit college that filed for bankruptcy in 2016 in the face of regulatory scrutiny concerning its recruitment and student loan practices. The settlement is with Student
On May 21, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced Senate Bill 1581 that would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D–Conn.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.
An online lead aggregator for payday and installment loans agreed to pay $4 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The lead aggregator also agreed to a permanent ban on lead generation, lead aggregation, and data brokering for certain high interest consumer loans.
In 2015, the CFPB filed a lawsuit
We are pleased to announce that Troutman Sanders attorney David Anthony will be presenting at the Consumer Data Industry Association Law & Industry Conference at the Covington & Burling, LLP office in Washington, DC. David will be a panelist on the subject matter, “Managing Risk in an Always Changing Litigation & Enforcement Environment” on June
On April 11, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim of the Northern District of California issued a two-page order vacating judgment and final approval of a class action settlement based upon the parties’ failure to send correct notices to more than 300 class members. See Tyler Smith et al. v. Pacific Personnel Services Inc., No.
On April 16, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that the definition of “conviction” under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. 1681, et seq, should be interpreted under federal law, not the law of the state where the criminal record is generated. See Aldaco v. RentGrow, Inc.,
Last week, a Ninth Circuit panel held that plaintiffs in five related cases lacked standing to pursue their FCRA claims. Specifically, the Ninth Circuit held that the allegation that a credit report contained misleading information, absent any indication that a consumer tried to engage in or was imminently planning to engage in any transactions for
A new Florida class action alleges that a car dealership misrepresented that it would make a “soft” credit inquiry, or pull, rather than a “hard” pull – and then made a hard pull. While the lawsuit alleges a straight-up misrepresentation causing harm to the consumer’s credit standing, the lawsuit illustrates the importance of accuracy in
