On September 9, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) circulated a draft order that would narrow how consumer revocations of consent apply under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). If adopted, callers could treat certain opt-out requests as limited to the category of automated calls or texts at issue, rather than as revocation of all prior consent. The draft order, listed as “TCPA Modernization,” is scheduled for a vote at the FCC’s September 30 open meeting.
On September 8, 2026, a bipartisan coalition of 49 state and territorial attorneys general filed reply comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), urging the agency to make its “Know Your Upstream Provider” (KYUP) requirements mandatory for voice service providers. The coalition is led by North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, who also chairs the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force. The filing follows the coalition’s July 27 letter to the FCC seeking stronger vetting obligations for originating voice service providers and extends that position to providers that accept and route traffic further down the call path.
On August 31, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), joined by the attorneys general (AGs) of 22 states, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington alleging that Amazon.com, Inc. overcharged its approximately 1.2 million advertising customers by manipulating the auctions it uses to set ad prices on its platform. The complaint alleges that, for more than seven years, Amazon covertly inflated advertising prices and that the alleged practice likely extracted more than $20 billion from its advertising customers. Amazon has not responded to the complaint yet, and the allegations have not been proven in court.
On September 2, 2026, a group of tobacco product manufacturers and retailers filed a complaint in federal court, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) 2021 premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) rule. Plaintiffs take aim at a regulation they say has made it virtually impossible for the FDA to authorize new tobacco products within the timeline Congress set more than 15 years ago. The case raises fundamental questions about whether a federal agency can adopt a regulatory process that, by design, cannot meet its own statutory deadlines.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Connecticut Attorney General (AG) William Tong announced a $4 million settlement this week with Manchester City Nissan, resolving allegations that the dealership systematically charged customers unauthorized fees.
On August 14, 2026, Corteva, Inc. agreed to pay $3.1 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Arkansas attorney general (AG) alleging that the pesticide maker’s rebate and loyalty programs functioned as de facto exclusive dealing arrangements that suppressed competition from generic pesticide manufacturers.
The alcoholic beverage industry has always been a visual business. A sun-drenched vineyard on a wine label, the amber glow of whiskey in a crystal tumbler, a frosted pint glass beading with condensation — these images are the currency of alcohol marketing. Now, artificial intelligence (AI) can generate all of them in seconds, at a fraction of the cost of a traditional photo shoot.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cigarette graphic health warning saga continues. On August 18, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision in R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. FDA, No. 25-40137, affirming the Eastern District of Texas’ order postponing the effective date of FDA’s 2020 cigarette graphic health warning rule pending a final decision on the merits. The decision delivers another significant setback for FDA’s long-running effort to require graphic images on cigarette packaging and advertisements — and provides clarity on the statutory limits of the agency’s authority under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) and the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (FCLAA), as amended by the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA).
As our Tobacco + Nicotine team previously reported, FDA’s May 8, 2026 guidance (the 2026 Guidance or the Guidance) on enforcement priorities for certain unauthorized ENDS and nicotine pouch products created a path for products with pending premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) to remain on the market. That Guidance is now being challenged in federal court by advocacy organizations, threatening the viability of FDA’s enforcement discretion.
In this crossover episode of Payments Pros and Regulatory Oversight, Stephen Piepgrass and Keith Barnett provide an update on the fast-developing prediction markets landscape. They discuss how federal and state regulators are responding to the growth of event contracts and the legal questions surrounding this emerging market. The conversation highlights the CFTC’s continued focus on oversight, market integrity, and the need for platforms to maintain strong controls to detect and prevent manipulation or other improper trading activity.