On March 6, the CFPB dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit against a lease-to-own company. The Bureau had previously alleged the company violated multiple counts of consumer finance fraud under the CFPA, TILA, the EFTA, and the FCRA related to the company’s “virtual rent-to-own” product from 2015 (covered by InfoBytes here).
Following the Bureau’s dismissal, the lease-to-own company subsequently voluntarily dismissed with prejudice its preemptive lawsuit against the CFPB it previously filed to block the Bureau’s enforcement action. The company had claimed the CFPB had no authority to bring the action because the lease-to-own transactions were state-regulated lease agreements (not loans or credit) and thus fell outside the Bureau’s jurisdiction (covered by InfoBytes here).
