Compliance

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On September 29, 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 53, the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, into law. The bill will go into effect on January 1, 2026. The act builds upon the recommendations found in the “California Report on Frontier AI Policy,” which was released to the public on June 17, 2025. This report detailed key principles to guide the legislation drafting process, including grounding AI policy in empirical research and providing greater transparency into AI systems. Given that California is home to 32 of the top 50 AI companies worldwide, the state dominates the AI industry. It is no surprise that California is the first state to create rules promoting safety, transparency, and incident reporting for frontier models. This new act is expected to set the stage for similar AI legislation across the U.S.

An Ohio appellate court recently affirmed the dismissal of a case brought by the Ohio attorney general (AG) against Central Tobacco & Stuff Inc. (Central Tobacco), an e-cigarette retailer, in which the AG alleged that Central Tobacco sold e-cigarettes lacking FDA premarket authorization and violated the state’s Consumer Sales Practices Act (CSPA) by failing to inform consumers about the lack of FDA authorization. See State ex rel. Attorney Gen. Dave Yost v. Cent. Tobacco & Stuff Inc., 2025-Ohio-4613 (Ct. App.). This appears to be a novel use of a state consumer protection law, which most states have, to attempt to enforce the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA). The court concluded that federal law preempts Ohio’s ability to enforce FDCA premarket authorization requirements through the CSPA. The court’s decision may be relevant in other cases involving a state’s attempt to enforce FDA premarket authorization requirements through their consumer protection laws.

On September 5, Illinois Attorney General (AG) Kwame Raoul announced the resolution of ongoing litigation against Clearview Electric Inc., an alternative retail electric supplier accused of engaging in fraudulent, unfair, and deceptive business practices. Clearview Energy allegedly misled Illinois consumers into paying significantly higher rates for electricity compared to those who remained with their default public utility.

In May, we wrote about the Trump administration’s first major enforcement action involving the importation of unauthorized e-cigarettes, in which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seized products valued at nearly $34 million. FDA and CBP have once again seized unauthorized e-cigarettes in Chicago, but this time the estimated retail value was $86.5 million — the largest seizure of its kind. This enforcement action is consistent with a statement on FDA’s website: “[e]nforcing against unauthorized ENDS products, including unauthorized products popular with youth, are [sic] among our highest enforcement priorities.” FDA maintains that decisions about whether to take enforcement action will continue to be made on a case-by-case basis after considering youth use and other risk factors.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Utah Department of Commerce’s Division of Consumer Protection (Division), represented by the Office of the Utah Attorney General (AG), recently announced a proposed consent order with Aylo, the company that owns and operates pornography websites, including Pornhub.com and Redtube.com. The proposed consent order includes the implementation of a compliance program and a $5 million penalty.

On August 12, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ordered Match Group, owners and operators of online dating platforms such as Match.com, OkCupid, PlentyOfFish, The League, and others, to pay $14 million. This settlement resolves the FTC’s 2019 complaint accusing Match of misleading claims involving guarantees and onerous subscription cancellation processes, contrary to the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA).

In 2022, a bipartisan task force of 51 state attorneys general (AGs) was formed to investigate and take legal action against companies allegedly responsible for large volumes of fraudulent and illegal robocall traffic. North Carolina AG Jeff Jackson, Indiana AG Todd Rokita, and Ohio AG Dave Yost lead the “Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force.” The task force is made up of AGs from both political parties.

In this episode of Regulatory Oversight, Stephen Piepgrass, Michael Yaghi, and Dan Waltz conclude their two-part series on the Better Business Bureau (BBB). The group discusses strategies for managing and improving BBB ratings for businesses, while examining how consumer complaints impact potential regulatory actions. They emphasize the importance of addressing these consumer complaints promptly, highlighting the need for effective training and streamlining complaint handling processes within companies to prevent issues from being overlooked.

We recently wrote about a federal case here and here involving key issues related to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) authority to enforce the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (PACT Act) against federally recognized Indian tribes and ATF’s interpretation of key sections of the PACT Act. In addition to appealing the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California’s decision, we noted that the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians (the Tribe) asked the district court to require ATF to remove it from the agency’s PACT Act noncompliant list (NCL) and prevent ATF and the other defendant, the Department of Justice from taking action against it pending its appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. On July 30, the federal district court denied the Tribe’s request.

On July 28, the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs issued a reminder to more than 3,000 auto dealerships regarding their obligations under the New Jersey data deletion law, N.J.S.A. § 56:12-18.1. This law, enacted and effective in January 2024, requires dealerships to offer data deletion services for consumer information stored in vehicles accepted for resale or lease. Dealerships are now on notice of their compliance obligations under the law.