Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. Here are this week’s updates.
Multistate
- A multistate coalition of seven state attorneys general secured $462 million in a settlement agreement with JUUL Labs Inc., and its former directors and executives, for contributing to the rise in underage e-cigarette vaping nationwide. In addition to the payment, the agreement requires that JUUL secure its products behind retail store counters and verify the age of consumers that directly sell or promote its products online.
- Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell led a coalition of attorneys general to call on the EPA to ensure that the benefits of EPA’s Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program reach underserved communities as intended under the Inflation Reduction Act.
- A multistate coalition challenged the decision issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that would leave in place restrictions on access to mifepristone imposed by a Texas trial court, and as a result restrict access to medication abortion nationwide. The amicus brief, filed in the United States Supreme Court, urges the court to stay pending appeal the Court of Appeal’s ruling, which if allowed to take effect would halt the approval from the FDA of a generic version for the medication abortion drug.
California
- California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the successful resolution of a lawsuit that led to dramatic improvements in the services and operation of a Santa Cruz County skilled nursing facility, the Hearts and Hands Post Acute & Rehab Center.
Florida
- Florida Attorney General Moody filed a complaint against a company for helping businesses avoid credit card chargebacks from consumers. Attorney General Moody and the Federal Trade Commission allege that Chargebacks911 and its owners are engaging in deceptive and unfair practices in violation of Florida law and the FTC Act by wrongfully impeding consumers’ attempts to dispute credit card charges through the chargeback process.
Kentucky
- Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced that action taken by his Department of Criminal Investigations resulted in a guilty plea of Allison Donaldson for wire fraud and identity theft. Between October 2020 and February 2022, Donaldson used City of Covington credit cards to make over $180,000 in personal purchases.
Indiana
- Agents from the Indiana Secretary of State’s auto dealer licensing and enforcement division have joined the Attorney General’s investigation into a Northeast Indiana auto dealership accused of rolling back odometers. Flexible Auto Sales, LLC located in LaGrange County is accused of scamming dozens of Hoosier auto buyers. A lawsuit filed claims the business, owned and operated by John Allen in Shipshewana, rolled back millions of miles on the odometers.
Minnesota
- Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison publicized that his office has settled its case against JUUL and Altria for deceptively marketing e-cigarettes, which became popular among Minnesota’s youth. Of the more than a dozen states and hundreds of local governments that have sued JUUL, Minnesota was the first to go to trial.
Pennsylvania
- Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry publicized a bipartisan national settlement that holds an online telehealth company responsible for misrepresenting the accuracy and fairness of services, and for failing to obtain approvals from the FDA.
Washington
- Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson published a press release regarding Senate Bill 5078, which passed the Legislature and is headed to Governor Jay Inslee for his signature. The bill stipulates that firearms manufacturers and sellers will face liability if they fail to establish, implement and enforce reasonable controls in the manufacture, sale, distribution and marketing of firearms to keep them out of the hands of dangerous individuals.
- Attorney General Ferguson partnered with Rep. Vandana Slatter to pass a bill intended to close the gap on health data privacy protections, provide Washingtonians more control of their health data and protect those who come from out of state to access reproductive and gender-affirming care.