Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. Here are this week’s updates.
Multistate
- Several state attorneys general, including North Carolina Attorney General Stein and Arizona Attorney General Mayes, expressed support for stronger protections for airline customers with the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2023 and Senator Ed Markey’s proposed amendment. Attorney General Stein sent a letter to Senator Ted Budd, while Attorney General Mayes sent a letter to Senator Kyrsten Sinema.
California
- California Attorney General Bonta issued a statement in response to JetBlue’s decision to terminate the Northeast Alliance, an anticompetitive joint venture with American Airlines that threatened competition in an industry already experiencing the negative impacts of market consolidation. Earlier in the year, Attorney General Bonta, along with the U.S. Department of Justice and a bipartisan coalition of states, secured a decision blocking the two airlines from continuing and from further implementing the Northeast Alliance.
- California Attorney General Bonta also announced his conditional approval of the sale of Beverly Community Hospital to nonprofit American Healthcare Systems.
Connecticut
- Connecticut Attorney General Tong issued a statement following a court decision by Superior Court Judge Cesar A. Noble requiring WinRed Technical Services to comply with Connecticut’s consumer protection investigation. In 2021, Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, and New York initiated an investigation into both WinRed and ActBlue regarding the use of pre-checked recurring donation boxes that reportedly automatically enrolled donors into repeated donations.
Florida
- Florida Attorney General Moody and the FTC are sending more than $540,000 to consumers who fell victim to an illegal robocall scheme. Life Management Services of Orange County, LLC, and related companies tricked individuals into paying for credit card interest-rate-reduction and debt-elimination programs that rarely, if ever, provided the results as promised.
New Jersey
- New Jersey Attorney General Platkin and the Division of Consumer Affairs announced that a nationwide mortgage provider formerly based in New Jersey has agreed to a $502,000 settlement to resolve allegations that it violated the state’s consumer protection laws in the sale and servicing of mortgages throughout the State and beyond.
- Attorney General Platkin and the Division on Civil Rights announced that 30 Notices of Violation have been issued to housing providers across New Jersey for allegedly violating New Jersey’s Fair Chance in Housing Act. They allege that the housing providers violated the law by asking criminal history-related questions on housing applications that are prohibited by the law, or by posting non-compliant housing advertisements or maintaining non-compliant housing policies.
Pennsylvania
- Pennsylvania Attorney General Henry announced the filing of a lawsuit against Philadelphia-based All American Monuments, Inc. and its owner for failing to fulfill orders for burial monuments and related services. The lawsuit alleges that, despite receiving thousands of dollars for engraved cemetery monuments, the company and owner, Nancy Jelassi, did not deliver the monuments or provide refunds to consumers.