Consumer Law

NAF Exits Consumer Arbitrations.

By Richard Alderman

In a major victory for consumers, the nation?s largest arbitration firm involved in adjudicating delinquent credit-card debt has agreed to pull out of the business. As reported by BusinessWeek, the move was announced today by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, who had filed suit against the National Arbitration Forum, alleging fraud, deceptive trade practices, and false advertising.

Under the terms of the consent decree, signed by the AG and NAF officials, the arbitration firm by the end of this week will stop accepting new consumer arbitrations of any sort. These include arbitrations over disputed credit-card debt as well as new lines of business the NAF has moved into, such as arbitrating consumer debts in healthcare, telecommunications, utilities, mortgages, and consumer leases. The only business NAF can now be involved with is in arbitrating Internet domain disputes, a business it has long been in.

The question now is where will all these arbitrations go, and will more lawsuits follow them.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on July 19, 2009 (boomark / email).