On November 7, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced a $600,000 settlement with Oklahoma-based payment processor Global Holdings. Attorney General Healey claimed that Global Holdings violated the Massachusetts Unfair and Deceptive Practices Act by sending debt settlement company DMB Financial LLC (DMB) its fees before the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule permits debt settlement companies like
In response to the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Community Financial Services Association of America, Ltd. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFSA) that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) funding mechanism is unconstitutional, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey sent a letter on October 24th to the CFPB, calling its continued operations into question and foreshadowing potential state challenges to its actions. While some state AGs and financial regulators are likely to help offset any reduction in CFPB activity through their own investigations and coordination with the CFPB, the dark cloud of the CFSA opinion hangs over the agency.
On September 27, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1311, the Military and Veteran Consumer Protection Act of 2022 (the Act), into law. The Act takes direct aim at, among other things, the Military Lending Act’s (MLA) exceptions for loans obtained to purchase motor vehicles and other forms of personal property. It goes
Escalating efforts to crack down on illegal robocalls, state attorneys general announced on August 2 that they have established a nationwide Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force. The task force comprises attorneys general from all 50 states and will investigate and prosecute companies suspected of allowing or using illegal robocalls from foreign entities. While the states have
On April 28, bipartisan lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation, allowing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to oversee cryptocurrency spot markets. The legislation intends to create a framework to fill the regulatory gaps between the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) digital asset marketplace and related regimes.
On June 3, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a request for information that could form the basis for a major update of its digital advertising guidance. The FTC’s most recent digital advertising guidance is its 2013 “.com Disclosures – How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising” (.com Disclosures Guide). The .com
On May 19, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued an interpretive rule, describing states’ authorities to pursue companies and individuals that allegedly violate any of the federal consumer financial laws enforced by the CFPB.
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra described this action as “promoting state enforcement, not suffocating it.” It openly invites
On February 28, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to a $930,000 settlement with Comprehensive Health Services (CHS) to resolve False Claims Act allegations. The resolution represents the department’s first settlement under the False Claims Act since instituting its Civil Cyber Fraud Initiative in October 2021.[1] This is a watershed moment in the
On February 14, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) updated its Supervision and Examinations Manual to reflect changes it made to the Remittance Transfer Rule (Rule) in a final rule published on June 5, 2020. The changes made to Subpart B of Regulation E, effective July 21, 2020, (1) increased the Rule’s safe harbor for
On December 8, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine transmitted the “Stop Discrimination by Algorithms Act of 2021 (Act)” for consideration and enactment by the Council of the District of Columbia. While discrimination of various types is prohibited by a variety of federal and D.C. laws, this bill would apply to a