CFPB Encourages New York to Ban Unfair or Abusive Conduct

Editor's Note: This article, authored by Kristen E. Larson of Ballard Spahr, previously appeared on Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Finance Monitor and is re-published here with permission.

THANANIT / Adobestock

On March 19, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) published a blog touting letters it has sent to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, New York State Senate leaders, and New York State Assembly leaders to highlight the importance of a ban on abusive or unfair conduct that is being considered in pending New York legislation.

In the 2023 legislative session, State Senator Leroy Comrie and Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein introduced companion bills titled the “Consumer and Small Business Protection Act” in the Senate and Assembly that would expand Section 349 of the state’s general business law (which currently only prohibits deceptive acts) to prohibit unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts. The bills would allow any individual or non-profit organization entitled to bring an action under Section 349 “on behalf of himself or herself and such others to recover actual, statutory and/or punitive damages or obtain other relief as provided for in this article.” Currently, private actions can only be brought under Section 349 for injunctive relief. The bills would allow statutory damages of $1000 plus actual damages to be awarded in private actions and make the award of reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs to a prevailing plaintiff mandatory rather than discretionary. As we previously blogged, the New York legislature adjourned on June 10, 2023 without any action on two bills but the bills were automatically reintroduced when the legislature reconvened in January. We assume that the CFPB’s letters were directed at the bills since the letters failed to cite the bill numbers or identify the name of the proposed Act.

The CFPB letters, which are signed by Assistant Director Brian Shearer of the Office of Policy Planning and Strategy, urge the NY legislature to follow Congress’s “careful and deliberate multi-part prohibition” and include the “reasonable reliance” component in the proposed abusive conduct ban. Assistant Director Shearer also comments that the inclusion of an unfairness standard has been important to the CFPB and FTC in their efforts to combat junk fees and deficient data security and that the clarification in the bills that an act or practice may be deceptive even when the representation is not directed at a consumer would align with the CFPA’s deceptive conduct prohibition.

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