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 June 4-10, 2026:
New York
- New York Attorney General James secured a settlement exceeding $3.9 million from Xponential Fitness, Inc. and its current and former subsidiaries, resolving allegations that the company violated New York’s Franchise Sales Act by providing prospective franchise owners with materially misleading estimates of how long it would take to open new studio locations. OAG’s investigation found that while Xponential consistently disclosed opening timelines of three to six months in Franchise Disclosure Documents filed with the state, the company simultaneously reported substantially longer timelines—as many as 15 months—in annual reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The $3,971,250 settlement will be distributed entirely as restitution to impacted franchisees, with $3,000,000 allocated among 70 franchisees who experienced longer-than-disclosed opening delays and $971,250 paid to 25 franchisees who were ultimately never able to open their studio locations.
Texas
- Texas Attorney General Paxton launched an industry-wide investigation into protein powder manufacturers under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, examining whether companies falsely marketed or misrepresented the safety and contents of their products and failed to disclose known heavy metal contamination—including lead, cadmium, and inorganic arsenic—to consumers. The investigation follows independent testing by Consumer Reports and the Clean Label Project, which identified elevated levels of heavy metals across numerous popular protein powder products, with some plant-based powders found to contain lead levels averaging nine times higher than dairy-based alternatives and nearly half of all products tested exceeding California Proposition 65 limits for toxic heavy metals in a single serving.
- Texas Attorney General Paxton launched an investigation into Celsius Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiary Alani Nutrition, LLC under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, examining whether the companies misled consumers about the safety of their Alani Nu energy drink—which contains 200 mg of caffeine per 12-oz can—for children and adolescents. The investigation centers on concerns that despite medical guidance from the National Institutes of Health advising against energy drink consumption by minors due to risks including elevated heart rate, high blood pressure, and dehydration, Alani Nu employs colorful packaging and youth-oriented branding that appears to deliberately target younger consumers while failing to include age-related or heart-health warnings beyond a listing of the caffeine amount.