On October 26, 2022, the CFPB issued guidance about two junk fee practices that are likely unfair and unlawful under existing law. The guidance, issued in two separately through a circular and a compliance bulletin, are intended to help banks avoid charging illegal junk fees on deposit accounts. This topic, along with a discussion on the FDIC’s recent guidance for overdraft fees on representment items, will be included in our Fall 2022 Quarterly Compliance Update which will be available in our store within the next few weeks.

On October 21, 2022, the FTC finalized a consent order against Opendoor Labs, Inc. designed to prevent the online real estate business from deceiving consumers about how much money they could save by selling their home to Opendoor, as opposed selling on the open market. The final order requires Opendoor to pay $62 million and to have competent and reliable evidence to support any representations made about the costs, savings, or financial benefits associated with using its service.

In October 2022, the FDIC updated its Risk Management Manual of Examination Policies. The FDIC made changes to Part IV, Section 22.1 Examination Documentation Modules where several sections were revised.

On October 20, 2022, the FTC published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) that seeks public comment on potential harms stemming from deceptive or unfair review and endorsement practices and whether a rule would help consumers and level the playing field for honest marketers. According to the FTC’s press release, the agency is exploring a potential rule to combat deceptive or unfair review and endorsement practices, such as using fake reviews, suppressing negative reviews, and paying for positive reviews.

On October 20, 2022, the FTC announced that it is exploring a rule to crack down on junk fees and the unfair or deceptive tactics companies use to impose them. Junk fees are unnecessary, unavoidable, or surprise charges that inflate costs while adding little to no value. According to the FTC, companies often harvest junk fees by imposing them on captive consumers or by deploying digital dark patterns and other tricks to hide or mask them.

On October 19, 2022, issued an issue brief regarding how overdraft fees affect economically insecure older adults. According to the CFPB, economically insecure older adults are particularly impacted by overdraft fees because they are often unable to adjust their carefully managed budgets to pay unexpected fees.

On October 18, 2022, the CFPB sued the online event registration company ACTIVE Network for tricking people trying to sign up for fundraising road races and other events, into enrolling into its annual subscription discount club, Active Advantage. According to the CFPB, ACTIVE automatically and unlawfully enrolled families into its discount club by using digital duplicity.

On October 13, 2022, the CFPB published a report on terms and fees associated with banking products marketed in partnership with colleges to students. The CFPB questions the compliance of some marketing deals between colleges and financial institutions to the Department of Education rules. In relation to this, the Department of Education issued guidance to schools on the requirements for college-sponsored banking arrangements.