Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced a recent agreement between Florida-based debt management company Touchstone Partners, Inc. and the Colorado Department of Law in resolution of Touchstone’s violations of the Colorado Debt Management Services Act (DMSA). Under the agreement, Touchstone is to refund over $110,000 in fees collected from consumers.

The DMSA requires debt management companies to include consumer protections in their agreements and specifically requires companies to provide an agreement signed by both parties.… Continue Reading

Switching from his usual role as frequent host of the Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast, Alan Kaplinsky, Senior Counsel in and former Practice Group Leader of Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services Group, was recently the special guest of Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Elliott Stein and Nathan Dean on their podcast, Votes and Verdicts. … Continue Reading

On November 16th, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) and Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced new independent initiatives regarding the use and implications of AI technologies on consumers in the context of telephone and voice communications.  These initiatives align with the recent Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence and show federal regulators’ expanding focus on existing and anticipated AI issues.… Continue Reading

The CFPB has issued its annual Fair Debt Collection Practices Act report covering the CFPB’s debt collection activities in 2022.  The report incorporates information from the FTC’s most recent annual letter to the CFPB describing its 2022 activities in the debt collection market.

CFPB Report. The CFPB report includes a “spotlight” section on the collection of medical bills. … Continue Reading

The Consumer Bankers Association has launched a four-part blog series “Facts Matter” to counter what it calls “misinformation conveyed by the CFPB” in its press release about the CFPB’s October 2023 report (Report) under the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD Act).  The CARD Act requires the CFPB to issue a biennial report to Congress on the consumer credit card market.… Continue Reading

Earlier this month, the CFPB filed a notice with the Texas federal district court that it is appealing to the Fifth Circuit the district court’s order granting summary judgment to a group of trade associations in their lawsuit against the CFPB challenging the changes made to its UDAAP Exam Manual in March 2022. … Continue Reading

We previously blogged about an Illinois federal district court order requiring Samsung to pay about $4 million in arbitration fees in connection with 35,000 individual arbitration demands filed as part of a “mass arbitration.”  By way of update, Samsung is pursuing an appeal to the Seventh Circuit, which recently granted Samsung’s motion for a stay of the district court’s order pending appeal. … Continue Reading

Joining every other circuit to address the same issue, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently ruled that a consumer does not have to prove actual damages to recover statutory damages for willful violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

In Omar Santos, et al. v. Experian Information Solutions, Inc.… Continue Reading

Our special guest is David Sherwyn, Professor of Law at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.  In September 2023, a group of consumer advocate organizations filed a Petition for Rulemaking with the CFPB that would prohibit the use of pre-dispute arbitration clauses in consumer contracts in favor of arbitration clauses that would permit consumers to choose between arbitration and litigation only after a dispute has arisen. … Continue Reading

Florida SB 146, a bill that would add a “Predatory loan prevention” section to the Florida Consumer Finance Act has been introduced in the Florida Senate, seeking to curb bank-model lending programs and codify a “true lender” analysis with language similar to legislation enacted in Minnesota and other states within the past three years.… Continue Reading