Consumer Protection

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Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. See our State Attorneys General page for more insights. Below are the updates from October 9-22, 2025:

Multistate

  • A coalition of 17 attorneys general filed an amicus brief in San Francisco AIDS Foundation, et al. v. Trump, et al., opposing President Trump’s attempts to block federal diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs through executive orders. The brief urges the Ninth Circuit to uphold a preliminary injunction blocking the orders and argues that they violate constitutional protections for expression and non-discrimination.
  • A bipartisan coalition of 34 states and the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief in NetChoice, LLC v. Jonathan Skrmetti,  defending a Tennessee law aimed at protecting children from social-media-related harms. The brief argues that social-media companies exploit youth vulnerabilities for profit and urges courts to recognize states’ authority to safeguard minors online.

Continue Reading State AG News: Children’s Privacy, Consumer Fraud, Environmental Action (October 9-22, 2025)

Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. See our State Attorneys General page for more insights. Below are the updates from October 2-8, 2025:

Multistate

  • A multistate coalition of 21 attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent the imposition of a new immigration-related condition limiting the plaintiff states’ access to federal grant programs for victim services and criminal justice. The same coalition of attorneys general previously filed another lawsuit in August seeking relief from similar conditions on Victims of Crime Act grant programs, and recently announced that the DOJ has dropped these conditions seemingly as a result of that legal pressure.   
  • A multistate coalition of 23 attorneys general filed an amicus brief in Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, et al., v. Michael Howe, Secretary of State of North Dakota, a lawsuit challenging the alleged dilution of Native Americans’ votes under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The brief argues that private enforcement of the VRA is necessary to preserve fundamental rights, and that the Eighth Circuit misapplied the law by departing from established Supreme Court precedent.
  • A multistate coalition of 5 attorneys general, in collaboration with the Federal Trade Commission, filed a lawsuit against Zillow and Redfin for allegedly entering an anticompetitive agreement to increase rental prices. The complaint alleges that Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to stop selling multifamily advertising, terminate its existing multifamily advertising contracts, and transition their multifamily advertising customers to Zillow. The attorneys general argue that this violates Section 1 of the Sherman Act and Section 7 of the Clayton Act, and seek declaratory and injunctive relief to undo and prevent anticompetitive harms stemming from this conduct.
  • Eight attorneys general authored an op-ed urging colleges and universities to pursue diverse student bodies by using race-neutral tools, and critiquing recent guidance from the U.S. Attorney General as well as the College Board’s cancellation of Landscape, a program that provided admissions officers with data on the high schools and neighborhoods of applicants.  The op-ed argues that schools must look beyond test scores and GPAs “to identify high-achieving students from disadvantaged communities.”

Continue Reading State AG News: Energy, Consumer Protection, Social Media

Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. See our State Attorneys General page for more insights. Below are the updates from September 25-October 1, 2025:

Multistate

  • A bipartisan coalition of 19 state attorneys general, along with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), announced a settlement under numerous state and federal False Advertising and Unfair Competition laws with Kars4Kids regarding alleged deceptive charitable solicitation practices. The settlement resolves claims that Kars4Kids misled donors about how contributions would be used and requires payment of restitution and changes to solicitation practices.

Continue Reading State AGs Advance Consumer Protection Through Settlements, Lawsuits, and New Initiatives

Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. See our State Attorneys General page for more insights. Below are the updates from September 18-24, 2025:

Multistate

  • A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia, plus Chief Legal Officers of seven city and county governments, submitted a comment letter opposing the U.S. EPA‘s proposed roll back of its 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare because they contribute to climate change. The AGs and Chief Legal Officers write that their constituents are experiencing substantial harm arising from climate change and other public health impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, including from motor vehicles.

Continue Reading State AG News: Environment, Consumer Protection, Energy, FTC September 18-24, 2025

Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. See our State Attorneys General page for more insights. Below are the updates from September 11-17, 2025

Alaska

  • The Alaska Supreme Court upheld the Alaska Attorney General’s broad subpoena power in consumer protection investigations after a car dealership refused to comply with the state’s request for its pricing structures. Because Alaska law prohibits the disclosure of targets of ongoing consumer protection investigations, the dealership’s identity is unknown.

Continue Reading State AG News: Consumer Protection, SAFE for Kids Act September 11-17, 2025

Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. See our State Attorneys General page for more insights. Below are the updates from August 28-September 3, 2025:

Alaska

  • Attorney General Stephen Cox announced a temporary restraining order against Alaska Wilderness Outfitter and its operator. According to the complaint, the company and operator defrauded consumers out of more than $660,000 by taking advance payment for guided hunts that the company canceled without refund. The lawsuit also alleges that the few clients who participated in the hunts were subjected to dangerous conditions without sufficient fuel or guides. The temporary restraining order prevents the operator from taking payments from new customers unless and until the operator can demonstrate to the court that he can provide safe, legal hunts for existing customers. The order also requires the operator to preserve assets for the payment of consumer restitution.

Continue Reading State AG News: Consumer Fraud, Misleading Ads, Tenant Rights August 28-September 3, 2025

Crowell’s Tiffany Aguiar will be a panelist at George Mason University’s (GMU) Nineteenth Annual Judicial Symposium on Civil Justice Issues. Hosted by the university’s Law & Economics Center, the symposium brings together judges, scholars, and practitioners to address pressing civil justice issues such as third-party litigation financing; the evolving role of judges in expert testimony admission; recent developments in consumer protection; the latest “super torts;” and assessing multi-district litigation, class actions, and mass arbitrations.Continue Reading Speaking Engagement Spotlight: George Mason University’s Nineteenth Annual Judicial Symposium on Civil Justice Issues

Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. See our State Attorneys General page for more insights. Below are the updates from August 14-20, 2025:

Illinois

  • Attorney General Raoul filed a lawsuit to prevent unlawful federal funding cuts that threaten Illinois’ state energy programs. The litigation asserts that the federal government’s proposed reductions would undermine vital clean energy initiatives, consumer protection efforts, and utility affordability across the state. The complaint asserts that these cuts violate statutory requirements and would hinder Illinois’ progress toward its energy and climate goals, particularly impacting vulnerable communities. The lawsuit seeks to block the federal action, preserve funding for energy programs, and ensure that federal agencies comply with legal obligations.

Continue Reading State AG News: Consumer Protection, Fraud, AI August 14-20, 2025

Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. See our State Attorneys General page for more insights. Below are the updates from July 17-30, 2025:

Multistate

  • A multistate coalition of 20 attorneys general announced the filing of a complaint challenging the allegedly unlawful final rule promulgated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that the coalition argues will create significant barriers to obtaining healthcare under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The complaint asserts that the HHS and CMS rule is unlawful, arbitrary and capricious, and would cause significant harm to states and their residents. It further asserts that the final rule imposes burdensome and costly paperwork requirements, limits the opportunities to sign up for health coverage, substantially increases cost-sharing limits, and forces exchanges and consumers to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to prove eligibility for coverage and subsidies, resulting in direct and immediate costs to states as well as harms tied to decreased enrollment.
  • A multistate coalition of 20 attorneys general filed an amicus brief urging the federal judge overseeing the case in Mid-America Milling Company v. United States Department of Transportation to uphold the proposed consent order that would end the federal government’s enforcement of engaging in alleged race-based preferences in the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program. According to the DBE webpage housed on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s website, this program is designed to ensure that small businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals have a fair opportunity to compete for federally funded transportation contracts. According to the Idaho attorney general, the “federal mandate forces states to sometimes reject the most qualified, cost-effective contractors based solely on the race and gender of business owners, resulting in higher costs for taxpayers.”

Continue Reading State AG News: Health Care, Privacy Violation, Contracts July 17-30, 2025

Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. See our State Attorneys General page for more insights. Below are the updates from July 10-16, 2025:

Multistate

  • A multistate coalition of 15 attorneys general announced that it is withdrawing its motion for a preliminary injunction in New Jersey v. Bondi, a lawsuit to prevent the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”) from distributing previously seized Forced Reset Triggers (“FRTs”) back into the community. FRTs are used to turn semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic machineguns and were previously illegal under federal law. Thus, ATF previously seized approximately 12,000 FRTs after extensive retrieval operations. However, ATF reversed course. According to the coalition’s complaint, ATF has dropped pending enforcement actions against individuals who allegedly possessed FRTs and agreed to return seized FRTs back to its previous owners. The coalition stated that it was withdrawing its motion for a preliminary injunction after the Government agreed not to return FRTs to the coalition states. 

Continue Reading State AG News: Federal Funding and Deceptive Practices July 10-16, 2025