Consumer Chief of the Month: L. Christopher Styron, Louisiana Attorney General’s Office
Greetings to all of my colleagues in the attorney general community across the country. I appreciate the NAGTRI Center for Consumer Protection giving me the opportunity to share some information about Louisiana’s Consumer Protection Section and myself. I joined the Consumer Protection Section of the Louisiana Department of Justice as an Assistant Attorney General in…
Attorney General Consumer Protection News: June 2021
Multistate Actions Led by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and New York Attorney General Letitia James, a bipartisan coalition of 28 attorneys general wrote Congress, urging it to restore the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) authority to obtain consumer restitution in actions filed under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act. The Supreme Court’s recent decision in…
Supporting Charities in the Time of COVID: The View From the New York Office of the Attorney General
We know all too well that the past year has seen unprecedented challenges for people throughout our nation and all over the world. In my state of New York, the pandemic’s impact on the nonprofit sector, which in normal times employs 1.25 million people (18% of New York’s workforce) has been enormous. We continue to…
Federal Consumer Protection News: June 2021
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau The CFPB issued rules designed to prevent avoidable foreclosures as homeowners exit COVID-19 hardship forbearances. The federal eviction moratorium ends June 30, 2021. The new rules go into effect August 31, 2021 and require servicers to meet temporary procedural safeguards before referring 120-day delinquent accounts for foreclosure. According to the Bureau,…
Improving Cybersecurity By Applying Consumer Protection Laws to Software
When a plane crashes because its aircraft control software has been incorrectly coded, the software manufacturer may be liable for damages. However, when a computer software application is incorrectly coded, leading to a major cyber-attack and interruption of international commerce, the vendor company which created the software almost never incurs liability. Why? Would amending consumer…
Federal Consumer Protection News and Other Items of Interest: May 2021
Federal Consumer Protection News President Biden issued an Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity following the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline which led to the pipeline shutting down and declarations of emergency and gasoline supply shortages in some states. The order declared that “the prevention, detection, assessment, and remediation of cyber incidents is a top…
Attorney General Consumer Protection News: May 2021
Multistate Actions Led by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III, and Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan, a bipartisan coalition of 44 attorneys general urged Facebook to abandon its launch of Instagram Kids, a social media platform for children under the age of 13. The…
Consumer Chief of the Month: Brandon Garod, New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office
As I have only been New Hampshire’s Consumer Chief for a little over two years, I have not yet had the opportunity to meet many of you. I am hoping that as life starts to return to normal, our ability to congregate and learn from shared experiences will return as well, and I will be…
Using UDAP in an Action Against the Manufacturers of the Antiplatelet Medication Plavix
In 2014, the State of Hawai‘i sued the manufacturers of the antiplatelet medication Plavix in state court for violating Hawaii’s unfair or deceptive trade practices act, chapter 480, Hawai‘i Revised Statutes (“UDAP”). After a four-week, virtual, non-jury trial concluded in November 2020, the Hawai‘i trial court entered judgment awarding more than $834 million in civil…
Risk-Based Pricing and the Role of State Attorneys General in Enforcement
Risk-based pricing is a practice in which a business charges consumers who are a greater credit risk more money for the same goods or services provided to other consumers who are less risky.1 Risk-based pricing is used in many industries, including insurance and banking, but the focus of this article is its use in consumer…
