The California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) has filed an administrative enforcement action against a title lender for alleged violations of California law and launched an investigation into whether the interest rates charged by the lender are unconscionable.
According to the DBO’s Accusation, the lender is licensed under the California Financing Law (CFL). The
New proposed legislation in California, backed by state Attorney General (“AG”) Xavier Becerra, would amend the new California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) to make it easier for private plaintiffs and public officials to sue for violations while further increasing regulatory uncertainty and compliance costs for businesses. Specifically, SB 561 would expand the CCPA’s private right
A bill (AB 1428) has been introduced in the California Assembly that would apply to a “business” that uses prepaid cards to make refunds to customers located in California. The bill would require such a business to allow the customer to choose whether to get the refund by prepaid card, check, or a
The California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) has issued an invitation for comments from stakeholders in developing regulations to implement SB 1235, the bill signed into law on September 30, 2018 that requires consumer-like disclosures to be made for certain commercial financing products, including small business loans and merchant cash advances. Companies providing such financing
Ballard Spahr attorneys Chris Willis, Scott Pearson, and Taylor Steinbacher discuss recent noteworthy developments in California law. Chris, who chairs Ballard’s Consumer Financial Services Litigation Group, and Scott, a partner in the Consumer Financial Services group, discuss the recently decided California Supreme Court De La Torre case, which makes licensed lenders vulnerable to claims that
Less than three months after California passed the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 1121 this week, making a number of technical and substantive changes to the law.
Of particular note: SB 1121 modifies the financial institution carve-out language in CCPA section 1798.145(e). While the change is a welcome
It appears likely that California Governor Jerry Brown will sign a bill passed on August 31 by the state’s Senate, Senate Bill 1235, which would create consumer-style disclosure requirements for certain commercial loans and other finance products, such as merchant cash advances and factoring transactions.
Notably, the new disclosure requirements would apply to sponsors of
Resolving an ambiguity in the California Finance Lender’s Law (CFLL), the California Supreme Court unanimously held that borrowers may use the unconscionability doctrine to challenge the interest rate on consumer loans of $2,500 or more, despite the fact that the CFLL has deregulated interest rates on such loans. Although unconscionability claims of this nature will
On July 28, 2017, California Governor Jerry Brown’s Office of Business and Economic Development recognized the California Department of Business Oversight for a successful Lean Six Sigma project that dramatically reduced the processing time for applications to amend financial services licenses. Through the project, the Department cut the processing time from an average of 100
California’s legislative effort to allow consumers to sue financial institutions for fraud even though they have agreed to arbitrate such disputes passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee this week and is expected to pass the full Assembly later this summer. The bill, which passed the state Senate in May, would amend California’s civil procedure rules governing