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.
In July 2026, OpenAI released an experimental AI cybersecurity model for internal testing. The model allegedly gained unauthorized access to several computer networks, resulting in an attack on Hugging Face, a widely used open-source AI platform that offers computation tools for building applications for machine learning. OpenAI’s model was allegedly attempting to access a repository that included answers to tests that OpenAI previously asked the model to solve. OpenAI decommissioned the model and suspended related training activities, but the incident drew swift scrutiny from state regulators.
On July 27, 2026, a bipartisan coalition of 50 state and territorial attorneys general (AGs) submitted a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging the FCC to adopt stronger “know your customer” (KYC) requirements for originating voice service providers. The coalition’s letter targets what the AGs view as inadequate due diligence on the part of providers, which may allow scammers to access U.S. telephone networks and flood consumers with illegal automated calls.
The 2026 attorney general (AG) primary season has largely come to a close, and while the November general elections will ultimately determine the partisan composition of several key offices, the enforcement agenda is already well underway. State AGs have been active across a broad range of industries and issue areas in the first half of 2026 – and the activity shows no signs of slowing. From artificial intelligence (AI) and consumer financial services to privacy, marketing, and advertising, state AGs are filling enforcement gaps left by reduced federal activity and staking out independent regulatory ground. The following is an overview of the key areas where companies should expect continued and intensified state AG scrutiny through the remainder of the year, beginning with an update on the races that will shape the enforcement landscape heading into 2027.
On July 23, 2026, Governor Mikie Sherrill signed the Fair Price Protection Act, P.L.2026, c.65 (A4085/4523), into law, making New Jersey one of the first states in the nation to prohibit the use of consumers’ personal data to set individualized prices for certain products. This bill will take effect on August 1, 2027 — although a moratorium on electronic shelf labeling takes effect on February 1, 2027.
On July 28, 2026, New York Attorney General (AG) Letitia James submitted written testimony in connection with the pending federal Clarity Act, which aims to regulate the crypto market. In her testimony, she urged federal lawmakers to amend the Clarity Act to preserve the authority of the states to protect consumers, prosecute fraud, and hold government officials accountable for profiting from unlawful crypto-related activities. Her testimony came as the subcommittee’s ranking member, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), convened a public hearing examining alleged gaps in the bill, with particular focus on its ethics and enforcement provisions.
In this crossover episode of Regulatory Oversight and The Consumer Finance Podcast, Mike Yaghi and Lane Page join Taylor Gess from Troutman Pepper Locke’s Consumer Financial Services practice group to discuss the hottest areas of state regulatory activity in the point-of-sale space. With federal consumer protection enforcement pulling back in certain areas under the current administration, state regulatory agencies are stepping into the spotlight to take an industrywide approach to point-of-sale finance. The conversation covers regulatory scrutiny around buy now, pay later (BNPL) products following the CFPB’s withdrawal of its interpretive rule, a coordinated seven-state inquiry into the U.S.’s largest BNPL providers, and what providers should be doing now to assess their own compliance posture. They also dig into the solar and home improvement finance sector, where states are challenging fee disclosures and targeting finance provider-merchant relationships, as well as the growing rent-to-own enforcement landscape. The episode closes with a look at what Rohit Chopra’s new role leading California’s consolidated consumer protection agency could mean for the financial services industry, with both California and New York positioning themselves as state-level successors to the CFPB’s prior enforcement mission.
Ashley L. Taylor Jr., co-leader of Troutman Pepper Locke’s State Attorneys General Practice Group, appeared in the September–October 2026 issue of The Journal of Federal Agency Action for his article, “State Attorneys General Will Dominate Post-Chevron Litigation.” The article was co-authored with Paul Nolette, a professor at Marquette University, and Aaron M. Frey, the attorney general of Maine.
On July 15, 2026, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a decision overturning lower court rulings that had shielded “semi-professionals” — including insurance brokers, agents, and producers, among others — from regulation and litigation under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (NJCFA).