Consumer Credit and Privacy Compliance
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2019 Financial Services Conference
April 28-30, 2019
Save the Date! Our sixteenth annual Conference will be held at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront in Baltimore, Maryland. Details and online registration coming soon.
Hudson Cook Insights
Today's Trends in Credit Regulation
Military Lending Act Compliance Continues to Plague Auto Finance Industry
By Patricia E.M. Covington and Erica A.N. Kramer
Since the Department of Defense released its amended interpretive rule in December 2017, the Military Lending Act ("MLA") has been a source of much confusion and consternation for the auto finance industry. Before that time, most of the industry operated under the understanding that the MLA's exclusion from coverage for consumer credit transactions "expressly intended to finance the purchase of a motor vehicle when the credit is secured by the vehicle being purchased" extended to all auto financing transactions. article continued
Dead Men Violate No Injunctions
By Rebecca E. Kuehn & Nora R. Udell
Can the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") prove that it needs a court order to stop deceased people from violating or being "about to" violate the law? Haunted by this question, the District Court for the Northern District Georgia asked the FTC to prove it in Federal Trade Commission v. Hornbeam Special Situations, LLC.[1] In Hornbeam, the FTC sued several companies and individuals for an injunction, alleging that they were marketing memberships in online discount clubs to consumers seeking payday, cash advance, or installment loans, in ways that violated the FTC Act, the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule, and the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act. article continued
Ninth Circuit Adds Its Two Cents to Piggy Bank of TCPA Autodialer Interpretations
By Michael A. Goodman
People trying to understand the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's autodialer standard have been repeatedly knocked around by 2018 judicial developments. The tumult began in March, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued its decision in ACA International v. Federal Communications Commission. That decision vacated key elements of the Federal Communications Commission's 2015 guidance, including its interpretation of the TCPA's definition of "autodialer." Since then, federal courts nationwide have struggled to apply the ACA International decision to the endless wave of TCPA litigation. article continued
Reports of the Bureau's Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
By Eric L. Johnson
We've all heard news like this before - an A-list celebrity is on his or her deathbed or just died. We later learn that the story was a hoax or was blown out of proportion. Reports of the celebrity's illness or death spread like wildfire in today's "post first and ask questions later" society. After Richard Cordray resigned last November as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Mick Mulvaney took the helm as acting director, I started hearing rumblings at conferences and reading on social media about how the Bureau was "dead" or had been "neutered" by President Trump. The frenzy about the Bureau's death started picking up steam after Mulvaney requested $0 in funding for the Bureau's 2nd quarter. article continued