On January 15-16, 2015, the American Conference Institute (ACI) will host the 15th installment of the acclaimed Global Legal & Compliance Forum on Cyber Security & Data Privacy and Protection at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C.  This is a premier event for privacy officers, in-house counsel, senior executives, and outside attorneys specializing

On December 11, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed a proposed class action over a June 2014 data breach at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, finding that no actual harm had been alleged. The court tossed a pair of consolidated complaints claiming that the restaurant chain failed to properly safeguard

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

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

On December 4, 2014, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed suit in Ohio County Circuit Court against a local businessman and his Wheeling, West Virginia businesses, alleging that they violated the Consumer Credit and Protection Act, the Safe Mortgage Licensure Act; and the Mortgage Lender, Broker and Servicer Act. A copy of the complaint

On November 25, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York denied a plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction barring U.S. Alliance Group (“USAG”) from paying “residual” credit card fee payments to one of its competitors, CardFlex.  In 2008, CardFlex – an independent sales organization that processes credit card transactions –

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:

A group of 16 state attorneys general recently wrote Richard Cordray, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a letter encouraging the CFPB to take immediate action to crack down on pre-dispute mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer agreements for financial products or services.  Specifically, while acknowledging that additional actions may be necessary to “fully address

Thirty-eight state and territorial attorneys general recently sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission requesting that it update its Telemarketing Sales Rules to help further protect against telemarketing fraud and abuse.

While the state attorneys general support existing Telemarketing Sales Rules, the group listed a number of concerns, including:

  • An increase in the number

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane recently filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Think Finance, a Texas-based company, for allegedly engineering an illegal payday loan scheme over the Internet.  The lawsuit, filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, alleges that the company targets Philadelphia consumers in violation of state law. 

The suit