Consumer Protection Litigation and Enforcement Update and Compliance Management Strategies - March 23, 2022

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Consumer Protection Litigation and Enforcement Update and Compliance Management Strategies - March 23, 2022
Consumer Protection Litigation and Enforcement
 Update and Compliance Management Strategies
                  March 23, 2022
Consumer Protection Litigation and Enforcement Update and Compliance Management Strategies - March 23, 2022
Disclaimer

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www.dlapiper.com                                                                                       2
Consumer Protection Litigation and Enforcement Update and Compliance Management Strategies - March 23, 2022
Welcome and Speakers

                   Keara Gordon                                       Isabelle Ord
                      Partner
                                          Austin Brown                     Partner
            Co-Chair Class Action Group         Partner          Co-Chair Class Action Group
                                          Financial Regulatory   Co-Chair Financial Services
                                                                          Sector US

www.dlapiper.com                                                                               3
Consumer Protection Litigation and Enforcement Update and Compliance Management Strategies - March 23, 2022
Consumer Class Actions

▪ Consumer class actions trends
▪ Class action risk can create regulatory and
  reputational risk
▪ Key and emerging issues
▪ Privacy and Biometric Information Privacy Act
  (“BIPA”)
▪ Global class actions are here

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Consumer Protection Litigation and Enforcement Update and Compliance Management Strategies - March 23, 2022
Government Enforcement

▪ Overview of key enforcement agencies
▪ Unfair, Deceptive or Abusive Acts or Practices
  legal framework (UDAAP)
▪ Key and emerging issues
▪ Regulatory action produces class action risk
▪ Practical tips

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Consumer Protection Litigation and Enforcement Update and Compliance Management Strategies - March 23, 2022
Class Action Litigation Trends

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Consumer Protection Litigation and Enforcement Update and Compliance Management Strategies - March 23, 2022
Class Actions – Increasing risk in 2022

    Stats          Class action spending predicted for 2022:   Class actions will grow for the 7th year in
                                                               a row, spending per class action will also
                   $3.64 B                                     increase
                                                               Consumer Retail is a “top growth
                   2021 class action spending:                 prospect”

                   $3.37B                                      Source: BTI Consulting Practice Outlook
                                                               for 2022

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Consumer Protection Litigation and Enforcement Update and Compliance Management Strategies - March 23, 2022
Class Actions – Trends and Developments

        Key Areas   ▪ Consumer goods                       ▪ Financial Services
                      ‒   Naturals/healthy                 ▪ Insurance
                      ‒   Consumer protection challenges   ▪ Food and Beverage
                      ‒   Price premium                    ▪ Employment
                      ‒   ESG                              ▪ CBD
                    ▪ ESG – organic, pure, etc.            ▪ Antitrust
                    ▪ Privacy (BIPA, CCPA, data breach)    ▪ Covid-19 (decreasing)
                    ▪ Securities                           ▪ WATCH: AI, inequities, lasting harm

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Consumer Protection Litigation and Enforcement Update and Compliance Management Strategies - March 23, 2022
Class Action Risk for Consumer Goods Manufactures

Class actions in the consumer good space
     ▪      Class action bar has targeted
            consumer goods companies.
     ▪      Multiple “copycat” class actions across
            the country.
     ▪      Brought on behalf of nationwide and
            state classes.
            ▪      Multiple state class actions.
     ▪      Increased number of filings in 2021.
     ▪      Litigation funding is becoming more
            mainstream.

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Consumer Protection Litigation and Enforcement Update and Compliance Management Strategies - March 23, 2022
Causes of Action in Class Actions
Class actions in the consumer goods space

▪ Violations of state consumer protection laws
        ▪    Advertising
        ▪    Unfair business practices
▪ Negligence
▪ Breach of express and implied warranty
▪ Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act
▪ Fraud (misrepresentation and omission)
▪ Unjust enrichment
▪ Breach of contract
       ▪ Terms and conditions

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Defense Philosophies
Most class actions settle.

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Class Action Key and Emerging Issues

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Article III Standing
A First Line of Defense

Under Article III of the U.S. Constitution “the judicial power of the United States” extends only
to “cases” or “controversies.”

A party has a “case” or “controversy” sufficient to obtain standing in Federal Court when the plaintiff:

                   (1) Suffered an injury in fact;

                   (2) that is traceable to the challenged conduct of the defendant; and

                   (3) that is likely to be redressed by a favorable judicial decision.

                                                 An injury in fact requires:

       (a)    an invasion of a legally          (b)   that is concrete and           (c)   actual or imminent, not
              protected interest;                     particularized; and                  conjectural or hypothetical.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                                          13
Round I: Spokeo v. Robins (2016)
Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins                                          136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016)

                                   Justice Alito:

                                   Question presented was whether Congress may
                                   confer Article III standing upon a plaintiff who
                                   suffers no concrete harm and who therefore could
                                   not otherwise invoke the jurisdiction of a federal
                                   court by authorizing a private right of action based
                                   on a bare violation of a federal statute.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                         14
Spokeo: Bare Procedural Violations Not Enough

            A plaintiff does not “automatically satisf[y] the injury-in-fact requirement whenever
            a statute grants a person a statutory right and purports to authorize that person to
            sue to vindicate that right.”

            Plaintiffs cannot “allege a bare procedural violation, divorced from any concrete
            harm, and satisfy the injury-in-fact requirement of Article III.”

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                    15
Spokeo: Risk of Harm

                                                   Plaintiff must show a “material risk
   An injury can also be “concrete”
                                                   of harm.” There must be “a degree
   if a plaintiff demonstrates a “real
                                                   of risk sufficient to meet the
   risk of harm.”
                                                   concreteness requirement.”

A real risk must be:
▪ Actual or imminent, which means “the [alleged] injury is certainly impending” (Clapper)
▪ Allegations of possible or speculative future injury are not sufficient

www.dlapiper.com                                                                            16
Round 2: TransUnion v. Ramirez (2021)
TransUnion v. Ramirez                                             141 S. Ct. 2190 (2021)

                        Justice Kavanaugh:

                        Question presented was whether either Article III or Rule 23
                        permits a damages class action where the vast majority of
                        the class suffered no actual injury, let alone an injury
                        anything like what the class representative suffered.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                           17
TransUnion: What happened?
                         ▪ Mr. Ramirez could not buy a car when he
                           potentially matched two entries in the OFAC
                           database of criminals and terrorists, got allegedly
                           conflicting reports from TransUnion
                         ▪ TransUnion argued class members lacked
                           standing and Mr. Ramirez’s situation was not
                           typical
                           ‒ Plaintiffs agreed 75% of putative class did not
                              have a credit report given to a third party.
                           ‒ Mr. Ramirez only person turned down for a loan
                              because of the errant terror list flag.
                         ▪ N.D. Cal. jury awarded the class $8.1 million in
                           statutory damages and $52 million in punitive
                           damages.
                         ▪ Ninth Circuit reduced the damages award to
                           approximately $40 million but held that all class
                           members had standing.
www.dlapiper.com                                                                 18
TransUnion: Main Takeaways

 Makes clear that allegations that a statute was violated do not, by themselves, create standing and that
 courts must separately consider whether a plaintiff suffered a concrete harm to have standing.

 Clarifies that prior statements that a risk of future harm could be sufficiently concrete were predicated on a
 claim for injunctive relief, but the test for evaluating claims of future harm in damages cases will require
 more.

 Does not address the issue, on which the circuit courts are split, of whether a class may be certified that
 includes uninjured plaintiffs.
    ‒ But: “Every class member must have Article III standing in order to recover individual damages.
      ‘Article III does not give federal courts the power to order relief to any uninjured plaintiff, class
      action or not.’”

 Does not address the lower court’s ruling on typicality, which was also at issue on appeal, given its
 resolution of the standing issues.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                                  19
TransUnion: Violation of a statute not enough

            “Congress’s creation of a statutory prohibition or obligation and a cause of action
            does not relieve courts of their responsibility to independently decide whether a
            plaintiff has suffered a concrete harm under Article III ….”

            “For standing purposes, therefore, an important difference exists between (i) a
            plaintiff’s statutory cause of action to sue a defendant over the defendant’s
            violation of federal law, and (ii) a plaintiff’s suffering concrete harm because of the
            defendant’s violation of federal law.”

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                      20
TransUnion: What is concrete harm?

            “[C]ourts should assess whether the alleged injury to the plaintiff has a ‘close
            relationship’ to a harm ‘traditionally’ recognized as providing a basis for a lawsuit
            in American courts.”

            “That inquiry asks whether plaintiffs have identified a close historical or common-
            law analogue for their asserted injury. Spokeo does not require an exact duplicate
            in American history and tradition. But Spokeo is not an open-ended invitation for
            federal courts to loosen Article III based on contemporary, evolving beliefs about
            what kinds of suits should be heard in federal courts.”

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                    21
TransUnion: Claims of future harm

            The Court found “persuasive” the “argument that in a suit for damages, the mere
            risk of future harm, standing alone, cannot qualify as a concrete harm….”

            “Consider an example. Suppose that a woman drives home from work a quarter
            mile ahead of a reckless driver who is dangerously swerving across lanes. The
            reckless driver has exposed the woman to a risk of future harm, but the risk does
            not materialize and the woman makes it home safely. As counsel for TransUnion
            stated, that would ordinarily be cause for celebration, not a lawsuit. ”

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                22
TransUnion: Early reactions

  Maddox v. Bank of New York Mellon Tr. Co., N.A., 19 F.4th 58, 65 (2d Cir. 2021)

         ▪ Claim that the Bank didn’t file a satisfaction of mortgage in a timely way allegedly in
           violation of a NY statute.

         ▪ “[R]isk [of future harm], which was not alleged to have materialized, cannot not form the
           basis of Article III standing.” Reversing the suggestion in McMorris v. Carlos Lopez &
           Assocs., LLC, 995 F.3d 295, 303 (2d Cir. 2021)

         ▪ “TransUnion established that in suits for damages plaintiffs cannot establish Article III
           standing by relying entirely on a statutory violation or risk of future harm: No concrete
           harm; no standing.”

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                       23
TransUnion: Early reactions

  Lupia v. Medicredit, Inc., No. 20-1294, 2021 WL 3627103 (10th Cir. Aug. 17, 2021)

         ▪ Tenth Circuit held plaintiff had standing after receiving one unanswered phone call in
           violation of FDCPA because “intrusion upon seclusion” is harm traditionally recognized by
           American courts.

         ▪ “Though a single phone call may not intrude to the degree required at common law, that
           phone call poses the same kind of harm recognized at common law—an unwanted
           intrusion into a plaintiff's peace and quiet.”

         ▪ Found TransUnion distinguishable because the plaintiff in Lupia had asserted harm with
           close relationship to common-law tort, which was not the case in TransUnion.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                       24
TransUnion: Early reactions

  Ward v. National Patient Account Services Solutions, Inc., 9 F.4th 357 (6th Cir. 2021)
         ▪ Consumer brought putative class action under the FDCPA, alleging that debt collector
           failure to properly identify itself and the true meaning of its business when making calls
           to consumers.

         ▪ The Sixth Circuit held that under TransUnion, the plaintiff “must show that [the debt
           collector’]s failure to disclose its full identity in voice messages resembles a harm
           traditionally regarded as providing a basis for a lawsuit.”

         ▪ Court rejected the plaintiff’s theory that the defendant’s conduct closely resembled the
           harm of invasion of privacy, and thus, without an injury-in-fact, the plaintiff could not
           demonstrate standing based on the statutory violations.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                        25
TransUnion: Early reactions

  Association of American Physicians & Surgeons v. United States Food and Drug
  Association,No. 20-1784, 2021 WL 4097325 (6th Cir. Sept. 9, 2021)

         ▪ Nonprofit physician association brought suit against FDA alleging constitutional and
           statutory violations under the Administrative Procedures Act for allowing the use of
           hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.

         ▪ The Sixth Circuit emphasized that under TransUnion, the plaintiffs must establish
           standing by showing “an injury caused by another party’s invasion of its rights.” Thus,
           merely alleging associational standing based on “disagreement” with the FDA’s action
           would not be sufficient to establish an injury-in-fact.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                     26
TransUnion: Early reactions

    Mastel v. Miniclip SA, No. 221CV00124WBSKJN, 2021 WL 2983198
    (E.D. Cal. July 15, 2021)
           ▪ Court found that the plaintiff in putative class action had standing to pursue claims under
             California Constitution based on allegations smartphone app collected users’ personal
             information.
           ▪ Defendants argued that, like in TransUnion, plaintiff had to show that personal
             information was published to have standing.
           ▪ Court disagreed because “the closest historical analogue to plaintiff's invasion of privacy
             claim under the California Constitution is not defamation, but other ‘invasion of privacy’
             torts such as intrusion upon seclusion,” which required only allegations of “collecting
             personal information without the plaintiff's consent.”

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                           27
Impact – State court litigation
                                            Strategic use of remand motions
Proliferation of state court filings?                                             Should you remove?
                                            by plaintiffs

                                        Award of the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees where the defendant removed, and
                                        then argued lack of standing. Because there was no standing, the
                                        defendant lacked an “objectively reasonable basis for seeking removal.”
www.dlapiper.com                                                                                                    28
Privacy and Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”)

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Statutory Overview of BIPA (740 ILCS 14/1, et seq.)

    740 ILCS 14/20 – Private right of action
    ▪ Any person aggrieved by a violation of this Act shall have a right of action in a State circuit court or as a
      supplemental claim in federal district court against an offending party. A prevailing party may recover for
      each violation:
         1. against a private entity that negligently violates a provision of this Act, liquidated damages of $1,000
            or actual damages, whichever is greater;
         2. against a private entity that intentionally or recklessly violates a provision of this Act, liquidated
            damages of $5,000 or actual damages, whichever is greater;
         3. reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, including expert witness fees and other litigation
            expenses; and
         4. other relief, including an injunction, as the State or federal court may deem appropriate.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                                       30
Privacy Class Actions

       ▪ Data Breaches and Article III Standing
           ‒ Actual injury verses potential risk of future harm (identity theft, etc.)
       ▪ Drivers Privacy Protection Act (DPPA))
       ▪ California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
       ▪ Other state and federal privacy statutes
           ‒ Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)
           ‒ Wiretap Act
           ‒ Intrusion on seclusion/privacy
       ▪ Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA)

www.dlapiper.com                                                                         31
The BIPA Litigation Landscape
    ▪ Skyrocketing litigation in the last couple years
    ▪ Statutory damages potential plus attorneys’ fees
    ▪ Facebook case settled for $650 million
    ▪ Early cases involved employers and biometric timeclocks
    ▪ Increasingly, tech companies have become targets
    ▪ Mainly fingerprints, some face geometry but expanding rapidly
      ‒ Voiceprints (e.g., voice-controlled devices)
      ‒ Face geometry (e.g., phone apps, social networking sites, testing software)
      ‒ Fingerprints (e.g., the providers of biometric timeclocks)
    ▪ Open question of per transaction or one violation
    ▪ Courts typically unwilling to dispose of claims early
    ▪ No BIPA case has gone to trial

www.dlapiper.com                                                                      32
Global Class Action Threats

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The Rise of Global Class Actions
Jurisdictions with class actions/collective redress proceedings

   Argentina        Japan
   Australia        Lithuania
   Austria          Mexico
   Brazil           Netherlands
   Bulgaria         New Zealand
   Canada           Norway
   Chile            Peru
   China            Portugal
   Colombia         Romania
   Costa Rica       South Africa
   Czech Republic   South Korea
   Finland          Spain
   France           Sweden
   Germany          Switzerland
   Greece           Taiwan
   Hungary          Thailand
   India            Turkey
   Ireland          United Kingdom
   Israel           United States
   Italy            Uruguay

www.dlapiper.com                                                  34
A few notable themes

     The global economy     The intersection       Consumer privacy and    The growing expansion
    and the emergence of   of technology and         data breaches are     of litigation funding and
        cost-effective     traditional tort law   recurring issues. GDPR    its global implications
      manufacturing and                             has local and global   and US lawyers moving
         supply hubs                                    implications               into Europe

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                       35
Collective Redress Directive

                   European
                                  Reflects      Third party
                   collective
                                   "mass        funding is       Adverse
                    redress
                                   harm"         permitted        costs
                   system –
                                  scandals          but        framework
                   harmoni-
                                  e.g. VW      transparent
                     sation

                                                Early stage
                    Damages                    dismissal for   No scope for
                                 Breaches of
                       and                      “manifestly    retrospective
                                   EU law
                   injunctions                 unfounded”          claims
                                                  cases

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Timetable for Implementation

                   November 2020:                      Commencement
                    EU Parliament
                     authorized        24 months
                                     to “transpose”                    Late 2022:
                                    (introduce) into                  First actions
                                    domestic law of                   under CRD
                                        Members                       anticipated
                                          States

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Government Enforcement Considerations

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Government Agencies

▪ A number of government agencies regulate and enforce consumer protection
  in the consumer goods, retail, and financial services industries, many with
  overlapping authority.
▪ Outside of financial services, the primary federal regulator is the Federal Trade
  Commission (“FTC”).
▪ For financial services issues relating to consumers, the Consumer Financial
  Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) has assumed the role of primary federal regulator,
  although the prudential bank regulators and the FTC also have enforcement
  authority in this space.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                      39
Government Agencies

▪ The key consumer protection tool that applies to nearly all industries that touch
  consumers is the prohibition against unfair or deceptive acts or practices
  (“UDAP”). In the financial services space, federal law also prohibits “abusive”
  acts or practices (adding another “A” to UDAAP).
▪ State authorities, such as attorneys general, may also regulate and enforce
  the conduct of companies that touch consumers under state UDAP laws.
▪ Regulators may coordinate enforcement efforts.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                      40
Overview of UDA(A)P

With the exception of the   What is a deceptive act or     What is an unfair act or
prohibition against         practice?                      practice?
“abusive” practices that     ▪ A deceptive act or           ▪ An act or practice is unfair
the CFPB enforces, the         practice is a                  when causes or is likely to
FTC and CFPB UDAP              representation,                cause substantial injury to
prohibitions are               omission or practice that      consumers that (i) is not
effectively the same.          (i) is likely to mislead       reasonably avoidable by
                               consumers acting               consumers; and (ii) is not
                               reasonably under the           outweighed by countervailing
                               circumstances; and (ii)        benefits to consumers or to
                               is material.                   competition.
                             ▪ Examples include small       ▪ Example could include a failure
                               font disclaimers or            to maintain reasonable and
                               omission of material           appropriate data security. See
                               information.                   FTC v. Wyndham Worldwide,
                                                              799 F.3d 236 (3d Cir. 2015).

 www.dlapiper.com                                                                               41
Overview of UDA(A)P

What is an abusive act or practice?                Recent example: Use of predominantly
▪ An abusive act or practice is one that           English-language agreements to enroll
  materially interferes with the ability of a      clients in a financial product, when
  consumer to understand a term or                 company knows that many of its clients
  condition of a consumer financial product        do not understand English, combined
  or service;                                      with omission and misrepresentation of
                                                   materials terms in the written agreement
▪ OR takes unreasonable advantage of:
                                                   during the enrollment process.
  ‒ (i) A lack of understanding on the part of     Complaint, CFPB v. Nexus Services,
     the consumer of the material risks,           W.D. Va. (Feb. 22, 2021).
     costs, or conditions of the product or
     service; (ii) the inability of the consumer
     to protect its interests in selecting or
     using a consumer financial product or
     service; or (iii) the reasonable reliance
     by the consumer on a covered person to
     act in the interests of the consumer.

 www.dlapiper.com                                                                             42
FTC UDAP Authority

FTC has the authority    A recent Supreme Court        FTC and Congress have
to bring a UDAP action   decision, AMG Capital         implemented a number of rules
administratively or in   Mgmt., LLC v. FTC,            under UDAP, including:
court, depending on      stripped the FTC of the        ▪ Telemarketing sales rule
the relief sought,       authority to obtain
                         equitable relief (e.g.,        ▪ Endorsements and testimonials
among other things.
                         restitution) in many cases,      rule
                         unless an FTC “rule” is        ▪ Covid-19 Consumer Protection
                         violated.                        Act
                                                        ▪ Prenotification Negative Option
                                                          Rule
                                                        ▪ Advertising of Warranties of
                                                          Guarantees

 www.dlapiper.com                                                                           43
CFPB Authority

▪ CFPB has become the primary enforcement authority for UDAAP against consumer
   financial services providers.
  ‒ The CFPB’s authority is broader than just banks and purely financial services
      providers.
▪ The CFPB has been extremely active in enforcing UDAAP against financial services
  providers.
▪ Significantly greater flexibility for obtaining equitable relief and restitution relating to
   UDAP violations than does the FTC.
  ‒ Civil Money Penalties range from $5,953 to $1,190,546 per violation.

 www.dlapiper.com                                                                                44
Key and Emerging Issues
 Equity

▪ Discrimination has historically been enforced by the FTC and CFPB under the Equal Credit Opportunity
   Act (“ECOA”). However, there is momentum behind enforcing discrimination through UDAP.
▪ On March 16, the CFPB expanded its manual for examining UDAAP to include instances where
   consumers are unfairly denied services on the basis of their race or other prohibited basis factors.
▪ New criteria to assess UDAAP compliance, including:
  ‒ “The entity has a process to prevent discrimination in relation to all aspects of consumer financial
      products or services the entity offers or provides, which includes the evaluation of all policies,
      procedures and processes for discrimination prior to implementation or making changes, and continued
      monitoring for discrimination after implementation. “
  ‒ “The entity’s compliance program includes an established process for periodic analysis and monitoring
      of all decision-making processes used in connection with consumer financial products or services, and
      a process to take corrective action to address any potential UDAAP concerns related to their use,
      including discrimination.”
  ‒ The entity has established policies and procedures to review, test, and monitor any decision-making
      processes it uses for potential UDAAP concerns, including discrimination.
▪ 2021 FTC bulletin: the prohibition against UDAP “would include the sale or use of … racially biased
   algorithms.”

 www.dlapiper.com                                                                                             45
Key and Emerging Issues
Equity

▪ In April 2021, the CFPB and the bank regulatory agencies issued a request for information
  (“RFI”) relating to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and alternative data by financial
  institutions.
▪ Relevant considerations include:
  ‒ Explainability (i.e., ability to explain how data leads to a specific outcome)
  ‒ Overfitting (i.e., where a model “learns” from patterns that are not representative of the
     population as a whole)
  ‒ Dynamic Updating (i.e., model evolution as it learns from new data)
  ‒ Third Party Oversight
▪ In February 2022, CFPB issued an outline of proposals to prevent algorithmic bias in home
  valuations.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                  46
Key and Emerging Issues
 Technology

▪ Digital contracting: Regulators are increasingly focused on the
  adequacy of disclosures delivered via app. Recent judicial decisions
  have made clear that improperly designed online contracting
  processes may be deceptive under UDAAP, even where all other
  applicable requirements have been met.
▪ Data privacy: Regulators are particularly concerned about the security
  of consumer information, the bases for which such data is obtained,
  and whether consumers understand how and when their data will be
  used.
▪ Payment processing: Payment services are governed by targeted laws
  at the federal and state levels. However, practices and disclosures
  regarding fees and the ability to cancel and claw back transactions
  could trigger UDAAP concerns.

 www.dlapiper.com                                                          47
Key and Emerging Issues

Subscription Services
 ▪ FTC has issued a warning that it is ramping up its enforcement “in response to a rising number of complaints about
   the financial harms caused by deceptive sign up tactics, including unauthorized charges or ongoing billing that is
   impossible to cancel.”
 ▪ Expects institutions to “provide clear, up-front information,” regarding the sign-up process, obtain consumers’
   informed consent, and “make cancellation easy.”
 ▪ California Automatic Renewal Law (ARL) amendments effective July 2022.

Testimonials and Endorsements
 ▪ Fashion Nova recently entered into a $4.3 million settlement with the FTC to resolve allegations that it blocked
   negative reviews of its products from being posted to its website.
 ▪ Allegedly misrepresented that the product reviews on its website reflected the views of all purchasers who submitted
   reviews, when in fact it suppressed reviews with ratings lower than four stars out of five.
 ▪ On March 22, 2022, the CFPB issued guidance stating that it is generally deceptive to include a “gag clause” in
   contracts. Likewise potentially deceptive to limit the posting of negative reviews or manipulate reviews to trick or
   confuse customers.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                                          48
Key and Emerging Issues

Junk Fees
 ▪ In January 2022, the CFPB issued a Request for Information seeking input on exploitative junk fees.
 ▪ Fees identified by the CFPB include overdraft fees, late fees, bill-pay fees, prepaid card fees, and closing cost and
   homebuying fees.
 ▪ Key issues include whether the fees were expected, whether consumers assumed the relevant service was covered
   by the baseline price, and fees that seemed too high for the services rendered.

Covid-19 Practices
 ▪ Enforcement agencies are looking at everything from how PPP lenders processed loan applications to the relief
   provided by lenders in connection with Covid-19 hardships.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                                           49
Compliance Management Strategies and Mitigation of
Class Action Risk

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Practical Tips

   ▪ The overall “net impression” that institutions create will remain a point of emphasis for
     enforcement agencies.
     ‒ Disclosures to consumers should be clear and conspicuous and provide appropriate
       information for consumers to make informed decisions.
     ‒ Would you want to know that information?
   ▪ Expect to see enforcement actions that push the envelope in terms of findings of “deception”
     to consumers.
     ‒ SettleIt Consent Order (CFPB, April 13, 2021) (SettleIt “deemphasized” the costs of its
       services).
   ▪ Identify and evaluate “hidden” practices.
     ‒ Issues that may not seem relevant to consumers are emerging as priority issues. E.g., use
       of alternative data to market products or services.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                    51
Practical Tips

   ▪ Monitor complaints closely
       ‒ Complaints often trigger investigations and civil litigation.
       ‒ What are the emerging trends, and can something be done to address customer concerns?
   ▪ Conduct periodic UDAAP risk assessments, to identify areas where hidden risks may exist.
   ▪ Ensure good customer service.
   ▪ Review product labels, warnings, customer disclosures, and advertisements carefully for
     litigation and regulatory risk.
   ▪ Review public disclosures and promises regarding ESG - guarantees?
   ▪ Evaluate arbitration agreements and class action waivers.

www.dlapiper.com                                                                                 52
Thank you

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