On January 26, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it resolved claims against the remaining defendants in an action concerning student loan debt relief products and services that commenced in 2019. As we previously reported, the FTC filed a complaint against a collection of interrelated companies in November 2019, alleging that they used fraudulent…
On January 7, 2022, the Massachusetts Appeals Court issued a decision concerning whether two insurance companies provided sufficient and timely notice to its Insured regarding the exclusion of coverage for Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) violations. In Addison Automatics, Inc. v. The Netherlands Insurance Co., Case No. 20-P-225, the Appeals…
On January 18, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had agreed to a settlement with a payment processing company, resolving allegations that the company assisted third parties in profiting from fraudulent services and products. The proposed stipulated judgment, if entered by the court, will resolve allegations that the company was processing…
On January 14, 2022, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it reached an agreement with a student loan servicer that had serviced loans under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program. The agreement resolves allegations that the loan servicer submitted false claims to the Department of Education (DOE) in violation of the False Claims Act (FCA)….
On January 13, thirty-nine state Attorneys General announced that they had reached a settlement with a national student loan servicer. The settlement resolves allegations that, since 2009, the servicer had been steering borrowers into higher-cost, longer-term forbearance arrangements. The Attorneys General alleged the practices increased borrower loan balances and violated various provisions of each state’s laws. …
On January 6, 2021, the Second Circuit issued an order criticizing and declining to adopt a Third Circuit ruling regarding the scope of the term “unsolicited advertisement” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). In Katz v. Focus Forward, LLC, No. 21-1224-cv, the Second Circuit affirmed the judgment of the…
On January 10, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed a complaint against three New York-based debt collection companies and their owners. The CFPB alleged the companies sold debts to collection companies that used unlawful collection tactics. Specifically, the CFPB alleged the companies knew or should have known that the…
On January 7, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had agreed to a settlement with a company that collected and generated leads for financial services products. In its simultaneously-filed complaint in the U.S. District court for the Central District of California, the FTC alleged that the company collected consumer data through a network…