Firm News

As part of its ongoing review of the 1973 Negative Option Rule, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) recently announced amendments to the rule intended to combat “unfair and deceptive” practices related to subscriptions, memberships and other…Read More

The Dodd-Frank Act amended The Truth in Lending Act (TILA) by requiring that the dollar threshold for exempt consumer credit transactions be adjusted annually by the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and…Read More

California enacted S.B. 1286 to amend the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to apply to certain commercial debts in addition to consumer debts. The amendments apply to all delinquent covered commercial debt sold or assigned on or after July 1, 2025…Read More

Illinois has enacted a law restricting dentists and their employees from arranging third-party financing of dental service and related activities. The new law takes effect January 1, 2025.
Under the new law a dentist, employee of a dentist or agent of a dentist may not…Read More

Missouri joined the list of states with commercial financing disclosure laws. The new law requires a provider that consummates a commercial financing transaction to disclose the terms of the commercial financing transaction at or before consummation of the transaction. “Commercial financing transaction” means any commercial loan, accounts receivable purchase transaction, commercial open-end credit plan or each to the extent the transaction is a business purpose transaction…Read More

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) yesterday announced a proposed interpretive rule likening earned wage access (“EWA”) products to consumer loans, requiring the disclosure of costs and fees. The interpretive rule, if finalized, would replace the CFPB’s 2020 Advisory Opinion on EWA products. The 2020 Advisory Opinion provided that certain EWA products were not “credit” under the Truth in Lending Act (“TILA”) or Regulation Z if all of several identified conditions were met, including that the products were administered through employers and were free to consumers… Read More

The Ohio General Assembly passed Ohio Senate Bill No. 94 that covers various topics including several related to financial services as summarized below. The bill will now be sent to the governor for his signature. The bill will become effective 90 days from the date the bill is filed with the Ohio Secretary of State, except for the provision related to lender provided MV certificates of title as explained below… Read More

The Federal Trade Commission, the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN) and Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN) recently announced the results of a review of selected websites and apps that showed a large percentage of the websites and mobile apps examined may use socalled “dark patterns”, understood as digital design techniques that may manipulate consumers into buying products or services or giving up their privacy… Read More

In a term that ran down to the wire, the Supreme Court announced two decisions last week and another decision this week that rebuke regulators and will be felt throughout the financial services industry. In a joint opinion in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce, the Court eliminated Chevron deference, bringing an end to courts’ “mechanical application” of “binding deference to agency interpretation” of ambiguous law… Read More

On June 28, 2024, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed H.B. 1347, which amends the Consumer Finance Act to allow licensedb lenders to charge a greater rate of interest on consumer loans, among other things. These amendments come after Governor DeSantis vetoed a similar bill this time last year. See our ALERTS of June 27, 2023 and May 26, 2023… Read More