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On October 17, following Washington Attorney General (AG) Bob Ferguson’s unsuccessful consumer protection action against thrift store chain, Savers Value Village Inc. (Savers), the Washington Superior Court of King County granted Savers’ motion for attorney’s fees and costs in the amount of $4.3 million. This substantial award — which is allowable under the Washington Consumer Protection Act (WA CPA) — represents a substantial recoupment of Savers’ attorneys’ fees spent to defend the almost decade-long litigation.Continue Reading Washington AG Ordered to Pay $4.3M in Attorney’s Fees and Costs to Thrift Store Chain

On March 17, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Jon Tester (D-MT) introduced the Digital Asset Sanctions Compliance Enhancement Act (Act) in an attempt to ensure blacklisted Russian individuals and businesses do not use cryptocurrency to evade economic sanctions.

“In order for the sanctions levied by the United States and…

On February 4, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) released the “Study of the Facilitation of Money Laundering and Terror Finance through the Trade in Works of Art” (Study). The Study assesses the various risks of the high-value art market based on its propensities for money laundering and illicit financing.

Specifically, the Study…

On February 8, a Northern District of California judge ruled on cross motions for summary judgment filed by the states of California, Illinois, and New York (plaintiffs) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Michael Hsu in his capacity as acting comptroller of the currency (collectively, the OCC) on the validity of…

Colorado and Delaware have enacted new laws for automatic renewal or negative options offers. The new laws became effective January 1, 2022. Illinois already has a law on the books related to automatic renewals but has recently made a few minor amendments to it.

Colorado. Companies must disclose the following in a clear and conspicuous…

On October 20, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) published a notice in the New York State Register announcing that it has issued a proposed regulation to implement S 5470-B, which requires disclosures for commercial financing transactions of $2.5 million or less under a commercial financing agreement.

The notice allows for public…

On October 5, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 497, legislation that restricts the types of prepaid accounts that can be used to receive certain government assistance payments. According to the National Consumer Law Center (NCLA), an advocacy organization that sponsored the legislation, the now-enacted law will “close a loophole that allows nonbank prepaid card…

On October 4, California passed a bill requiring a money transmitter to display a toll-free telephone number on its website through which a customer may contact the licensee for customer service issues and receive live customer assistance. The telephone number must be operative at least 10 hours per day, Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays.…

On September 9, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) released the Model Transmission Modernization Act (model law) in efforts to replace the 50 state-specific money transmitter laws with a nationwide standard. Unless the states adopt the model law, no change will occur to any existing state money transmission laws.

If enacted by the states,…