In Ellis v. Warehouse Home Furnishings Distribs., Judge Catherine M. Salinas, of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, granted summary judgment for Warehouse Home Furnishings Distributors, Inc., f/k/a Farmers Furniture Company (“Farmers”), holding that Ellis failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact as to whether “the Farmers
A federal court in Maine recently held that the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1681, et seq., preempts burdensome credit reporting restrictions imposed by the Maine Fair Credit Reporting Act. “By seeking to exclude additional types of information” from consumer credit reports, the court held that “the Maine Amendments
The Supreme Court granted cert in Ramirez v. TransUnion LLC to consider “whether either Article III or Rule 23 permits a damages class action where the vast majority of the class suffered no actual injury, let alone an injury anything like what the class representative suffered.” This development is a welcomed opportunity for clarity in
Midwest Recovery Systems (“Midwest Recovery”), a debt collection company, must cease its alleged debt-parking practices, delete all reported debts, and surrender its remaining assets in partial payment of a $24.3 million monetary judgment, under a stipulated order filed by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) last week. Debt parking, also known as “passive debt collection,” occurs
If you have ever leased an apartment, house, or storefront, you have probably agreed to a background check or asked the applicant to do so. What you may not know is that the process of looking into someone’s background is regulated by state, local, and federal law. Here are five points any landlord, tenant, or
We reported in September of this year on a demand from multiple consumer advocacy groups to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) to rescind its April 1, 2020, credit report guidance that relaxed the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s (“FCRA”) deadlines to investigate consumer-initiated direct disputes. In a letter dated November 9, 2020, CFPB Director Kathleen
Following a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) investigation into its credit reporting procedures, telecommunications debt collector Afni, Inc. agreed Thursday to implement additional safeguards against inaccurate reporting and pay a $500,000 civil penalty.
The CFPB’s investigation found that Afni had violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) in several ways. First, Afni had negligently furnished
October 26, 2020, marks the 50th anniversary of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA, 15 U.S.C. § 1681, et seq.), which along with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Telephone Consumer Protection Act, Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, and the Truth in Lending Act, forms the foundation of federal consumer rights law
Multiple consumer advocacy groups are demanding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) rescind its April 1, 2020, credit reporting guidance regarding the investigation of error disputes vowed at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
In April, the CFPB said it would not hold companies to strict deadlines for investigating disputes that consumers have about information
In 2011 and 2013, Peri Domante’s personal information was stolen and fraudulently used to open two accounts with Dish Networks, LLC (“Dish”), a provider of television services. After being alerted to the fraud, Domante sued Dish for violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”). The parties settled the lawsuit. As part of the agreement,