District Judge Bans Company from Collecting and Disclosing Consumer Information

FTC

Recently, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada granted in part the FTC’s motion for summary judgment and motion for default judgment against a company, its subsidiaries, and seven individuals (collectively, defendants) for allegedly participating in a scheme to defraud consumers. FTC v. Ideal Fin. Solutions, Inc., No. 2:13-00143 (D. Nev. Feb. 23, 2016). According to the FTC, the defendants misrepresented themselves as consumer credit experts and bought previously declined payday loan applications from data brokers that contained personal information, such as Social Security numbers and bank accounts numbers. The district court found that the FTC “reasonably approximated the consumer-loss amount attributable to defendants: they are jointly and severally liable for $43,083,723, except for [one individual], who is jointly and severally liable for $36,575,542.” In addition, the court banned (i) all the defendants from collecting or disclosing consumer-account information without the consumer’s authorization; and (ii) three defendants from marketing, selling, and handling credit-related products or services.