Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

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On January 21, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania struck a class action under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692 et seq. (“FDCPA”) and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, 47 U.S.C. §§ 227 et seq. (“TCPA”).  Although the judge allowed the lead plaintiff to pursue…

On January 20, 2015, the Department of Justice, on the Federal Trade Commission’s behalf, filed a complaint against Commercial Recovery Systems, Inc. (CRS), a Texas-based debt collector, including its current and former principals, for allegedly using illegal tactics, such as threatening consumers with false claims of lawsuits and potential garnishments, in the United States District…

On January 5, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it was creating a new complaint portal.  As shown on the FCC form for complaints, which can be found here (Word format) and here (.pdf), this portal is very much designed to capture complaints arising from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and, specifically, automatic telephone…

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office, in a recent press release, warned its in-state consumers of a “debt-collection” scam whereby imposters pose as law enforcement officials or government agencies.  This warning was triggered by a sharp increase in the number of reports to the AG’s Office of threatening telephone calls and emails as part of…

As part of the Federal Trade Commission’s ongoing initiative to promote consumer education and protection in the Latino community through its fotonovelas series, it recently announced the creation of a new Spanish-language graphic novel.  As the third and most recent installment of the FTC’s fotonovelas series, the graphic novel titled “Cobradodres de Dueda”,…

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a follow-up study of credit report accuracy (the “Follow-Up Study”) that found most consumers who previously reported an unresolved error on one of their three major credit reports believe that at least one piece of disputed information on their report is still inaccurate.

The congressionally-mandated study is the sixth…

Last month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its annual report on financial services regulations entitled “Dodd-Frank Regulations: Regulators’ Analytical and Coordination Efforts.”

According to this report, federal financial regulators— Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, National Credit…

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…

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,…

On the heels of a $22 million settlement in an enforcement action brought by the Federal Trade Commission, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott recently announced his office’s resolution of an enforcement action against the same group of Dallas-based technology firms that falsely claimed to offer individuals “free” credit scores.  The firms named as defendants were:…