FTC · Wired
FTC Strikes Deals to Ignore Unlawful Credit Discrimination
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◌ Single Source
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced deals with two auto dealers, along with the former general manager of a third, promising not to enforce—or even help enforce—their court-ordered obligations to maintain fair lending programs and not engage in unlawful credit discrimination.
Key facts
- The FTC and Arizona previously accused Coulter Motor Company and Gregory DePaola, a former general manager at the Phoenix-area auto dealer, of charging Latino customers more in interest
- The Northern District of Illinois, which presided over one case, says it was never given the opportunity to evaluate one of the new agreements, and Arizona attorney general Kris Mayes, whose office was a coplaintiff in another of the affected cases, calls the move “outrageous
- The FTC is doing away with the obligations because the defendants didn’t explicitly instruct its salespeople to treat Black and Latino borrowers differently
- The FTC and the Attorney General’s Office partnered on this case to ensure Arizonans can purchase cars without being misled or charged more because of their ethnicity,” says Mayes
Summary
The Northern District of Illinois, which presided over one case, says it was never given the opportunity to evaluate one of the new agreements, and Arizona attorney general Kris Mayes, whose office was a coplaintiff in another of the affected cases, calls the move “outrageous.” The FTC is doing away with the obligations because the defendants didn’t explicitly instruct its salespeople to treat Black and Latino borrowers differently. The FTC and Arizona previously accused Coulter Motor Company and Gregory DePaola, a former general manager at the Phoenix-area auto dealer, of charging Latino customers more in interest and for add-on products, in violation of the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act, among other charges.