On February 10, the Department of Justice and the North Carolina Attorney General filed a consent decree to settle claims that a Charlotte-area “buy here pay here” dealer engaged in intentionally discriminatory “reverse redlining” practices. The regulators alleged that the defendants specifically targeted African-American customers and imposed onerous credit terms upon them without regard to
Since its creation in 2009, the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (“HECM”) reverse mortgage program created by the Federal Housing Authority has helped numerous senior citizens stay in their homes by allowing them to convert the equity in their home into useable funds instead of having to sell their homes to supplement their retirement income or
Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Continental Finance Company LLC, a credit card lender, to refund an estimated $2.7 million to approximately 98,000 consumers. The CFPB found that the company’s subprime credit cards misrepresented certain fees and hit consumers with illegal charges. The order also requires the company to pay a civil penalty
On February 5, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan testified before the U.S. Senate, calling on Congress to enact a strong, meaningful federal data breach notification law, while at the same time lobbying Congress to avoid preempting states from enforcing their own data protection laws.
Before the Senate’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in a
On January 16, 2014, Troutman Sanders secured a victory for client Paris Baguette America, Inc. when District Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed with prejudice a putative class action alleging that Paris Baguette willfully violated the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act by printing
On February 3, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau asked a federal district court to enter a consent order that would permanently ban a Texas company, Union Workers Credit Service, from offering any credit products or services after it duped thousands of consumers into signing up for a sham credit card. The CFPB claims that
The Federal Trade Commission announced on January 30 that it has reached settlements with two auto title lenders operating in Georgia and Alabama. The FTC had alleged that the lenders advertised certain offers without disclosing specific conditions required to receive the advertised rate, and failed to disclose that finance charges may rise after an introductory
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided a case involving a debt collector that had verified the existence of a debt in response to a consumer reporting agency’s inquiry, even though the debtor had allegedly disputed the debt to the same reporting agency. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s ruling that the debtor
The Federal Trade Commission has released a Staff Report addressing the “Internet of Things” – a phrase referring to everyday items that are able to connect to the internet and transmit data. The Internet of Things includes over 25 billion connected devices worldwide, including fitness trackers, connected appliances, and more. Estimates are that by 2020,
The plaintiffs in a putative class action accusing The Container Store Inc. of retaining the ZIP codes of credit card-paying customers have asked a Massachusetts federal judge to grant final approval to a class action settlement.
Plaintiffs and class representative Judith Monteferrante sued the chain in June 2013, alleging it illegally requested and kept the