On November 5, 2015 the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office announced that a national auto loan company agreed to pay $5.4 million in restitution to Massachusetts consumers to settle allegations it charged excessive interest rates on automobile loans. According to the Massachusetts AG, the company purchased loans from primary creditors that contained…
On October 28, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it entered an administrative consent order against an Ohio-based auto lender that specializes in loans to military servicemembers. The CFPB consent order, and the companion stipulated order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, resolve…
On October 20, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it approved final consent orders against two Law Vegas auto dealers for misrepresenting the cost of cars in advertising, which the dealers had agreed to settle back in June (available here and here). The complaints (available here and here) alleged that the…
On October 1, 2015, the CFPB announced an enforcement action and consent order with an indirect auto lender for illegal debt collection and other practices. It is alleged that the company’s actions violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Truth in Lending Act, and the Dodd-Frank Act. The illegal…
On September 23, 2015, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office announced a settlement with a regional automobile title loan company over allegations the company charged illegal interest rates and fees to borrowers. The company operated websites that offered automobile title loans to Vermont consumers. Consumers who were approved for the loans assigned…
On August 18, 2015, the Oregon Attorney General’s Office and the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services announced that they filed a lawsuit against a regional automobile loan company. The company advertised car title loans online. When consumers completed the online applications, the company allegedly deceived them into signing…
On August 10, 2015, the American subsidiary of an automotive lending company disclosed in an SEC filing that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had notified the company on July 31, 2015 that it had asked the DOJ to investigate the company’s potential violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. According to the filing, the CFPB’s referral…
On July 15, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that claims concerning an indirect auto finance company’s alleged discriminatory lending practices were settled as part of a consent order requiring $24 million in restitution payments to borrowers and changes to the lender’s dealer compensation system. The consent order alleges…
On July 10, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had entered into a consent order permanently banning a state debt relief services provider from advertising or providing debt relief services. The complaint, filed on January 26, alleged that the provider violated the Federal Trade Commission Act and Telemarketing and Consumer…
On July 10, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had entered a consent order with affiliated auto dealerships that allegedly misrepresented to consumers that auto payment programs or add-on products would save them money. The consent order prohibits the dealerships from representing that any payment program or add-on product or…
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recent action against two credit card vendors regarding credit monitoring and identity theft protection services is a reminder of the legal risks associated with certain add-on products. The July 1 settlement, in which the CFPB found that the vendors misled customers about the benefits of…
On June 10, 2015, the CFPB issued a Final Rule amending the scope of its regulatory authority to include “larger participants” of the automobile financing industry. Under the Final Rule, the CFPB will supervise certain nonbank auto finance companies that (1) originate loans for the purchase of automobiles; (2) refinance…
On June 23, 2015, the West Virginia Attorney General announced a settlement with an automobile title loan and debt collection company over claims the company engaged in abusive debt collection practices. According to the West Virginia Attorney General, the company repeatedly called consumers at inconvenient times regarding their delinquent loan payments and…
On June 17, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a complaint against a national automobile finance company over allegations that the finance company used illegal threats and deceptive tactics to collect debts from military servicemembers. The complaint alleges that the finance company violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act…
On Wednesday, June 10, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced a new rule that grants the CFPB the ability to monitor nonbank companies that qualify as “larger participants of a market for automobile financing.” The CFPB simultaneously adopted a separate rule defining certain automobile leases as a “financial…
On June 9, 2015, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that it provided its 2014 Annual Financial Acts Enforcement Report (the “Report”) to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and the Federal Reserve Board. The 23-page Report, dated May 29, 2015, provided information about enforcement and related activities involving Regulation Z (Truth in…
On June 10, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that it entered into a consent order with an Arkansas car dealer over charges that the car dealer failed to display a “Buyers Guide” on used cars offered for sale. In connection with the settlement, the car dealer agreed to pay…
On June 10, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that it unanimously approved consent orders with two Georgia car title lenders that the FTC charged had failed to disclose important conditions about financing for their title loans. In its complaint, the FTC alleged that the car title lenders violated the…
On May 15, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that a settlement was reached against “a company that deceptively advertised its add-on biweekly auto payment plan” for allegedly violating the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. Section 45, et seq. The Complaint alleged that the payment liaison company deceptively pitched consumers a…
On May 7, 2015, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a settlement with a regional bank over allegations of discriminatory lending. In a Complaint filed in federal court, the Department of Justice alleged that the bank engaged in a “pattern or practice” of charging Hispanic or African American borrowers higher…