There is a good chance that your most sensitive data was stolen from Equifax. 143 million people had their data accessed by hackers. You can check to see if your data was accessed. The breach occurred sometime in the May to July, 2017 time frame. It seems that Equifax will not send you a written ...
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing a marketing scheme that tricked consumers into spending 2,000 percent of what they thought they had agreed to pay. In its complaint, the FTC alleges that a group of According to the FTC, the defendants used a network of 78 companies, at least 87 w...
I started writing about consumer law issues on this website a year ago.
I have written about the FTC's substantiation requirements with respect to supplements. The nature of supplements lends itself to exaggerated and false claims about their effectiveness. However, the substantiation requirements apply to other types of products too as seen by the FTC's recent actio...
Wyoming adopts law reining in freewheeling roof repair operations Hail storms are a recurring summer event in Wyoming. Millions of dollars in damage is inflicted on hundreds of homes in Wyoming every year. This leads to a large number of contractors and related individuals offering roof repair s...
CenturyLink's alleged lack of integrity leads to several lawsuits CenturyLink faces two class action lawsuits related to allegations of ripping off customers just a few days after being sued by a former employee for wrongful termination for complaining to her superiors that the company forced em...
The FTC obtains $280 million judgment against Dish Network for telemarketing violations As the result of Do Not Call (DNC) litigation brought by the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, as well as the states of California, Illinois, North Carolina, and Ohio, a fe...
Wyoming imposes large civil penalty on Vivint The Wyoming Attorney General's Office recently imposed a $100,000 civil penalty on Vivint. Vivint is a home security and smart home technology company. Vivint enlists large groups of salesmen to canvas neighborhoods door to door to sell its products....
What do you do when there is an error on your credit report? An FTC study showed that five percent of Americans had errors on their credit reports that could lead to them paying more for loans. This statistic seems accurate to me as many consumers call my office asking for advice on how to remov...
The constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is being attacked in a case it brought against Ocwen. The CFPB and several attorneys general sued Ocwen in connection with its foreclosure and loan servicing activities. The CFPB claims that Ocwen failed to comply with ter...
Colorado Attorney General fails to prove that Debt Collection Law Firm overcharged Earlier this month, the Denver District Court ruled that the Castle Law Group, a foreclosure law firm, did not — did not systematically charge inflated and deceptive costs for routine foreclosure services, a Den...
Wyoming goes after transient pavers It looks like the Wyoming Attorney General's Office has been busy with transient pavers. Transient pavers are small asphalt paving operations that travel from county to county during the warmer months seeking small paving jobs. They usually are seen working on...
Wyoming removes the cloak of anonymity for shell companies. The Wyoming legislature is in session for the next few weeks. One of the pending bills aims to plug a loophole that allows people to own or control Wyoming corporations and companies anonymously. As I have wrote about in the past, as...
Top 10 Consumer Complaints in Colorado It is that time of year again where the various state and federal consumer protection agencies review their 2016 statistics and report on consumer complaints and trends. The Colorado Attorney General reports the following top ten consumer complaints for 201...
Can you prove those claims? A Colorado company with a controversial product has been sued by the Iowa Attorney General's Office for consumer fraud. The complaint alleges that Osmosis, LLC and Harmonized Water, LLC deceived consumers by making the assertion that their products
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Report The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently released a report identifying problems with the big three consumer reporting companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). The CFPB found several systemic problems at the companies and it h...
HB 22 Advances without opposition in the Wyoming legislature As I noted last month, there is a bill pending before the Wyoming legislature that would remove some of the loopholes that allow great anonymity for Wyoming company owners. The bill is advancing without opposition in the legislature an...
When a company claims that its products are "Made in the USA," the products should really be made in the USA. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently drove home this point in a case against a water filtration system distributor in Georgia. The FTC entered a settlement with the distributor ba...
Timeshare company settles with the Colorado Attorney General Last month I wrote about a case brought by the Colorado Attorney General against a Timeshare Sale Operation. I have more information about the case now. It seems that several of the defendants in the case settled with the Attorney Gene...
Misleading advertising can end up being costly to a business One of the major challenges of retailers is how to increase business from consumers. Retailers advertise their services or products through various mediums, often using novel methods. Despite what method is used to drive business, reta...
Wyoming attempts to plug a shell company loophole The Wyoming legislature is in session for the next few weeks. One of the pending bills aims to plug a loophole that allows people to own or control Wyoming corporations and companies anonymously. As I have wrote about in the past, as the law is ...
Class Actions in Consumer Cases As many readers of this blog know, I practice in both Wyoming and Colorado. Because of my practice, I often run across interesting discrepancies between the two states' consumer protection laws. One of the unique differences between Wyoming and Colorado consumer l...
Credit Freeze or Credit Monitoring? You often hear about data breaches in the news, or unfortunately, through a data breach notice from a company. Most of the time that a data breach occurs, the company offers a credit monitoring service to help protect its customers from the consequences of the...
The Colorado Attorney General files suit against a Timeshare Sale Operation under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act The Colorado Attorney General is taking action against a group of interrelated companies and their owners in regard to a timeshare sale operation. The case is Colorado v. Highla...
The Federal Trade Commission settled its investigation regarding the massive Ashley Madison data breach that occurred last year. One of the more interesting parts of the settlement is the mandated data security program. The FTC and Ashley Madison agreed that. he designation of an employee or empl...
Harmony Law is one of the few law firms in Colorado and Wyoming that focuses on consumer law. Mr. Hutchins is a member of the National Association of Consumer Advocates and state chair for Wyoming. If you have a consumer law issue, please feel free to call 970-488-1857 and speak with Mr. Hutchins.
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