Showing posts with label state attorney general. Show all posts
Showing posts with label state attorney general. Show all posts

Free Scam Prevention webinar on November 10th

Sunday, October 25, 2020

Free Scam Prevention Webinar
November 10, 2020 from 1 - 2:30pm
To register, email RSVP@Aegisliving.com


Many seniors are spending extra time alone since the onset of this pandemic. Without a weekly bridge club, grandchildren’s birthdays to look forward to, or other social activity, the highlight of someone’s day may be when their phone rings. Unfortunately, on the other end of that phone might be a scammer.

Scams are on the rise, and many are looking to target older adults. “According to the National Council on Aging (NCOA), there are prominent scams targeting seniors currently that have cost some billions of dollars” in 2019. Seniors, especially living alone, may not have anyone to ask if the person on the phone is sincere.

Educating yourself and the seniors in your life is an important step to take to prevent them from being caught up in a scam where someone will take advantage of them. As scams evolve and continue to get craftier, continue to stay educated.

There are several resources available to help you and the seniors in your life stay one step ahead of the scammers. Locally, Aegis Living is partnering with the Office of Consumer Protection and the WA Office of the Attorney General to present a FREE Webinar on Identity Theft and Scam Prevention.

On Tuesday November 10th from 1:00 – 2:30pm speakers Elena Huizar and Monserrat Jauregui from the Office of Consumer Protection and the WA Office of the Attorney General will discuss current fraud and scammer tactics and how to spot red flags. They will also cover what to do if you or a loved one have been targeted. 

To register, email RSVP@Aegisliving.com

For more resources visit



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AG Ferguson lawsuit halts insurance company’s deceptive imitation of the Washington Health Benefit Exchange website

Friday, October 16, 2020


Attorney General Bob Ferguson today secured a court order against Health Insurance Team, a Seattle-based insurance company, for imitating the official state-run health insurance exchange. Ferguson’s complaint, filed today along with the order, asserts that Health Insurance Team’s marketing violated the Consumer Protection Act’s prohibition on deceptive advertising.

The court order, approved by King County Superior Court, legally requires the insurance company to stop its use of domain names and branding that are similar to the state exchange. The company must also pay $50,000 to the Attorney General’s Office, which will be used for future enforcement of the Consumer Protection Act.

Read more here



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AG Ferguson, Gov. Inslee issue joint statement regarding today’s oral argument on Trump’s Clean Power Plan rollbacks

Friday, October 9, 2020

Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Governor Jay Inslee issued the following statement on today’s oral arguments in Washington’s multistate lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s attempts to roll back the Clean Power Plan and replace it with the “Affordable Clean Energy” rule, which does not require significant carbon emission reductions. The Trump Administration finalized this rule in July 2019.

The oral arguments were heard Thursday, October 8, 2020 at 6:30am in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

“Attorneys from our multistate coalition will be in court today challenging the Trump Administration’s unlawful attempts to roll back the Clean Power Plan. 
"The Trump Administration’s new ‘Affordable Clean Energy’ rule is neither affordable nor clean. It’s a thinly veiled attempt to loosen restrictions on coal power plants. It incentivizes the continued use of coal-fired power and does nothing to address carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, or address climate change. 
"The administration’s own analysis shows that the increased air pollution and carbon emissions allowed under this plan will injure or kill thousands of additional people across the country. 
"Trump’s EPA has a track record of pandering to fossil fuel industry interests at the expense of human health and the environment, and it shows: Washington has won seven cases challenging the EPA’s shortsighted decisions. 
"We look forward to seeing them in court again. We will continue fighting for clean air for all Washingtonians.”


In August 2019, Ferguson, in a coalition of 22 states and seven local governments, filed a petition for review challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to repeal the Clean Power Plan. 




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AG Ferguson calls on UTC to protect Washingtonians from utility shut-offs amid COVID-19 pandemic

Saturday, October 3, 2020

Attorney General Bob Ferguson issued a proposal that calls on the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) to, among other protections, ban utility late fees and utility service disconnections until at least April 30, 2021. 

These protections ensure vulnerable Washingtonians don’t lose the services they need to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic and the related economic crisis.

Ferguson issued the proposal to the UTC in partnership with the Sierra Club, NW Energy Coalition, The Energy Project, Front and Centered and Puget Sound Sage. 

The UTC is currently considering how private energy utilities should be allowed to collect past-due utility bills during the COVID-19 pandemic. The commission will make its final decision after a public meeting on Oct. 6. 

The public is welcome to attend this meeting remotely and participate by phone or Skype. Learn more about the meeting, including how to attend, at the UTC’s website.

“Washingtonians are hurting,” Ferguson said. “This is not the time to put individuals at risk of losing critical services they need, like heat and electricity.”

More information here



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AG Ferguson sues Brown Paper Tickets

Friday, October 2, 2020

After receiving hundreds of complaints from consumers and event organizers across the country, Attorney General Bob Ferguson today filed a lawsuit against Brown Paper Tickets.
 
Ferguson asserts the Seattle-based company, which provides ticket management and support for event organizers, failed to pay organizers for events that occurred before COVID-19 shutdowns and has not refunded consumers for tickets they purchased for entertainment and other events cancelled due to the pandemic.

The lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, asserts the company engaged in unfair and deceptive acts that violated Washington’s Consumer Protection Act. Ferguson asserts that Brown Paper Tickets owes event organizers approximately $6 million and ticket buyers $760,000 nationwide.

“Small organizations and individuals are hurting right now,” Ferguson said. “As the people’s lawyer, my job is put money back into the pockets of Washingtonians harmed by entities who don’t play by the rules and honor their commitments.”

More information here



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AG Ferguson: Mesh manufacturer Bard must pay Washington $2.38 million for failing to disclose the risks of its transvaginal mesh devices

Saturday, September 26, 2020

Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Friday that Bard, a medical device manufacturer and formerly one of the biggest manufacturers of transvaginal mesh devices, will pay $2.38 million to Washington for misrepresentations and failure to include serious risks in the instructions and marketing materials for surgical mesh devices.

The money will go into a larger restitution fund, established after the Johnson and Johnson mesh recovery, for women who received transvaginal mesh devices. 

In April 2019, Ferguson announced a similar, separate resolution of Ferguson’s case against Johnson and Johnson over the company’s failure to disclose the serious risks of their surgical mesh devices. On the eve of trial, Johnson and Johnson agreed to pay $9.9 million to Washington.

Read more here




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AG Ferguson: Washingtonians who attended ITT Tech to get nearly $6 million in debt relief

Thursday, September 17, 2020

State Attorney General
Bob Ferguson


Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced that 816 former ITT Tech students in Washington state will receive $5.9 million in debt relief. 

This amount covers all outstanding debts these borrowers owe to PEAKS Trust. 

The debt forgiveness resolves an investigation launched by Ferguson and a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general into unfair and deceptive lending practices by PEAKS Trust, a private loan program created to fund loans for the for-profit college ITT Tech. Today’s court filing also requires PEAKS to dissolve.

PEAKS was formed after the 2008 financial crisis. At the time, private sources of lending available to for-profit colleges were drying up. 

ITT Tech developed a plan with PEAKS to offer students temporary credit to cover the gap in tuition between federal student aid and the full cost of the education. ITT Tech required borrowers to repay this temporary credit in nine months, while they were still in school.

According to today’s court filing, ITT Tech and PEAKS knew or should have known that the students would not be able to repay the temporary credit when it became due nine months later. 

Many students attested that they thought the temporary credit was like a federal loan, and, consequently, would not be due until six months after they graduated. When the temporary credit became due, ITT Tech pressured and coerced students into accepting loans from PEAKS, which for many students carried high interest rates, far above rates for federal loans.

One Washington student filed a complaint with Ferguson’s office about PEAKS high-interest loans, writing: “In 2013, I was notified by PEAKS that they had ‘assumed’ my student loans from ITT Tech. They have it broken down to 4 ‘loans,’ ranging from 11.75 percent to 15.25 percent interest. The original amount of my loans were less than $20,000 and are now over $40,000. I was paying on these, religiously, until last fall when something didn’t seem right. 
"I noticed the interest kept going up and my balances were also going up, even though I was paying $500 + per month on these loans… I am not looking to ‘get out’ of my student loans, but the interest rate is criminal and there is no hope to pay (off) these loans with these variable rates.”


Pressure tactics used by ITT included pulling students out of class and threatening to expel them if they did not repay the temporary credit or accept the PEAKS loan terms. Many of the ITT students were from low-income backgrounds and were left with the choice of enrolling in the PEAKS loans or dropping out and losing any benefit of the credits they had earned, because ITT’s credits would not transfer to most schools.

“ITT Tech and PEAKS were only interested in increasing their bottom line at their students’ expense,” Ferguson said. “Their high-interest loans ballooned to an 80 percent default rate and left students saddled with debt. Today’s resolution will free more than 800 Washingtonians from these predatory loans.”


ITT Tech filed for bankruptcy in 2016 amid investigations by state attorneys general and following action by the U.S. Department of Education to restrict ITT’s access to federal student aid. The for-profit school abruptly closed all of its 149 campuses in September 2016, including campuses in Seattle, Everett and Spokane Valley.

The default rate on the PEAKS loans is projected to exceed 80 percent, due to both the high cost of the loans as well as the lack of success ITT graduates had getting jobs that earned enough to make repayment feasible. The defaulted loans continue to affect students’ credit ratings and are usually not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

Under today’s legally enforceable agreement, PEAKS has agreed that it will stop collection of 100 percent of the outstanding loans. PEAKS will send notices to borrowers about the cancelled debt and ensure that automatic payments are cancelled. 

Moreover, the settlement also requires PEAKS to supply credit reporting agencies with information to update credit information for affected borrowers, so the loans will no longer affect borrowers’ credit scores.

The relief is a result of an investigation into PEAKS loans, conducted by a bipartisan coalition of 48 attorneys general and the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Nationally, the settlement will result in debt relief of about $330 million for 35,000 borrowers who have outstanding loans with PEAKS Trust.

Borrowers will receive a notice in the mail informing them of the debt relief and detailing their rights under the settlement. The debt relief is automatic, meaning borrowers will need to do nothing to receive the debt relief. Students may direct questions about the debt relief to PEAKS at customerservice@peaksloans.com or 866-747-0273, or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at 855-411-2372.

Assistant Attorney General Craig Rader is handling the case for Washington.

In June 2019, Ferguson was part of a $186 million settlement that resulted in debt relief for 18,664 former ITT Tech students. Under the settlement, 538 Washingtonians received $5.1 million in debt relief. That agreement was with Student CU Connect CUSO, LLC, which also offered loans to finance students’ tuition at ITT Tech.




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AG Ferguson files motion to immediately block damaging U.S. Postal Service changes

Friday, September 11, 2020

Attorney General Bob Ferguson late yesterday asked a Yakima judge to immediately halt the U.S. Postal Service’s drastic operational changes that threaten critical mail delivery nationwide.

Ferguson’s motion for preliminary injunction, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, seeks the following:
  • Immediately stop the Postal Service’s “leave mail behind” policy, where postal trucks are required to leave at specified times, regardless if there is mail still to be loaded
  • Require the Postal Service to continue its longstanding practice of treating all election mail as First Class mail, regardless of the paid postage
  • Require the Postal Service to replace, reassemble, or reconnect any removed mail-sorting machines that are needed to ensure timely processing and delivery of election mail
  • Require the Postal Service to abide by Postmaster General DeJoy’s commitment to suspend the recent policy changes that have affected mail service until after the election

Ferguson is leading a coalition of 14 states that filed a lawsuit over the changes to the Postal Service on Aug. 18.

Read more HERE



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AG Ferguson leads lawsuit to protect America’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas drilling

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Alexis Bonogofsky, Alaska Region U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service


Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Wednesday he is leading a coalition of 15 states filing a federal lawsuit against the Trump Administration to protect America’s pristine and undeveloped Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas development.

The Coastal Plain is a 1.6 million-acre national treasure, unparalleled in its biological significance for hundreds of species, including caribou, threatened polar bears and millions of birds that migrate to and from six continents and through the lower 48 states.

The area is sacred to the indigenous Gwich’in people and is particularly vulnerable to environmental stressors, including climate change, which has caused thinning sea ice and thawing of permafrost in the region.

Despite that, the Trump Administration’s Department of the Interior has authorized an oil and gas drilling program that will cause irreparable damage to one of the few remaining wild places in the nation.

Read more HERE



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AG Ferguson files lawsuit against JUUL for targeting underage consumers in its advertising, product design

Friday, September 4, 2020

Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a consumer protection lawsuit against e-cigarette company JUUL. 

Ferguson’s lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, asserts JUUL violated the state Consumer Protection Act by designing and marketing its products to appeal to underage consumers and deceiving consumers about the addictiveness of its product.

JUUL’s unlawful conduct fueled a pervasive and staggering rise in e-cigarette use and nicotine addiction among youth.

In addition, Ferguson’s lawsuit asserts that JUUL failed to meet Washington’s tobacco vapor product licensing requirements. From August 2016 until April 2018, every sale of a JUUL device in Washington was unlawful.

“JUUL put profits before people,” Ferguson said. “Pushing unfair and deceptive marketing strategies appealing to youth, the company fueled a staggering rise in vaping among teens. JUUL’s conduct reversed decades of progress fighting nicotine addiction, and they must be held accountable.”

More information HERE

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AG Ferguson: Court rules against NRA; voter-approved Initiative 1639 is constitutional

Thursday, September 3, 2020

Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced that a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled that Initiative 1639 is constitutional and will remain law in Washington state.

The voter-approved initiative made several changes to Washington laws on semiautomatic rifle purchases, including strengthening background checks and requiring waiting periods for purchases of semiautomatic assault rifles.

Judge Ronald Leighton, a President George W. Bush-appointed federal judge, granted Ferguson’s motion for summary judgment ruling that I-1639 does not violate the Constitution. The law implemented the same enhanced background checks, waiting periods, and purchasing requirements for semiautomatic assault rifle purchases that have long been in place for handgun purchases.

Judge Leighton decided a trial was unnecessary to resolve the case. In order to rule on summary judgment, there must be no genuine dispute over any material fact, and the judge views the evidence in the light most favorable to the party opposing summary judgment. In other words, the judge viewed the facts in a light most favorable to the NRA and the other plaintiffs in the case, and still upheld the initiative.

More information HERE





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AG Ferguson updates DACA lawsuit after Trump Administration again strips protections for Dreamers

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed an amended complaint August 28, 2020 seeking to halt an unlawful Trump Administration policy that guts the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The Trump Administration’s new attempt to strip protections for Dreamers comes after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in mid-June that declared President Trump’s first attempt to rescind DACA unlawful.

On July 28, Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Chad Wolf wrote a memo stating he wanted to limit DACA while he decides whether to fully rescind the program. 

Specifically, Wolf’s memo ordered DHS to reject all new DACA applications, change the renewal period from two years to one and prohibit current DACA recipients from traveling outside the U.S. without DHS approval. The memo is the latest of numerous efforts by President Trump to end DACA since taking office in 2016.

The amended complaint, filed in the Eastern District of New York with 16 other attorneys general, updates the states’ lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s previous attempts to end DACA — the lawsuit that prevailed before the Supreme Court in June. The amended complaint asserts that the Wolf memo is again not supported by any reasonable explanation and fails to consider the harms caused by the undue limits to the DACA program, a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

The decision illegally curtails protections for Washington’s nearly 17,000 DACA recipients, also known as “Dreamers,” and about 800,000 nationwide, Ferguson’s updated lawsuit asserts.


Ferguson’s lawsuit also asserts that Wolf cannot legally make this kind of decision because he was unlawfully appointed to his post as acting secretary. When Wolf was appointed, the administration circumvented long-standing order-of-succession laws for federal agency officers. On Aug. 14, the Government Accountability Office released a finding that the federal government improperly appointed Wolf and two other appointees to their positions.

“The highest court in the land told the Trump Administration it cannot arbitrarily end DACA,” Ferguson said. “Despite this, the Department of Homeland Security — under the leadership of an unlawfully appointed acting secretary — pushed through yet another attempt to erode the program. 
"Our fight isn’t over yet. I will do everything in my power to protect Washington’s Dreamers.”

More information HERE



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Washington leads lawsuit against Trump Administration for illegally sabotaging bedrock environmental law

Sunday, August 30, 2020


Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a federal lawsuit today against the Trump Administration for illegally gutting the nation’s bedrock environmental law. 

The changes to the rules key to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) will eliminate or reduce environmental scrutiny for a wide range of major federal decisions and will harm Washington’s most susceptible communities.

NEPA is a federal statute that governs all federal agencies and applies to most of the activities they approve or carry out. NEPA mandates detailed environmental review for all major federal actions — like power plants, roads, pipelines and large logging projects — that the federal government plans to undertake.

Former Washington Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson introduced NEPA in the Senate in 1968 when he chaired the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. It passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress and President Richard Nixon signed it into law on Jan. 1, 1970. NEPA has been called “the Magna Carta of the nation’s environmental laws.”

NEPA requires that the federal government analyze and consider the environmental consequences of significant federal actions. It requires the federal government to “look before it leaps” by requiring decisions be informed by facts and science.

More information here



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Yakima federal judge grants AG Ferguson’s motion to expedite discovery in USPS lawsuit

Friday, August 28, 2020


Order forces administration to produce records related to damaging changes at the Postal Service within 10 days

YAKIMA — A federal judge in Yakima today granted Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s motion to expedite discovery in his lawsuit challenging drastic operational changes at the U.S. Postal Service that threaten critical mail delivery and could undermine the national election in November.

Judge Stanley A. Bastian, the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, gave the administration 10 days to produce the records. Ferguson sought to speed the discovery process to not only obtain, but also preserve evidence concerning the implementation of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s recent changes to the Postal Services.

See the rest of the story HERE



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Judge orders $10 million in penalties for AG Ferguson’s robocall lawsuit

Thursday, August 27, 2020

A King County Superior Court judge today ordered Vancouver, Wash.-based air duct cleaning companies and their owner to pay civil penalties of $10 million in Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s lawsuit over deceptive advertisements and robocalls.

By law these penalties will be directed to the state’s general fund. The companies made over 13 million robocalls within Washington state from 2017 to 2019, including calling more than 500 individual Washington consumers over 100 times.

The Attorney General’s Office received dozens of complaints about the companies’ robocalls and deceptive advertising and services. 

Washingtonians also filed nearly 120 complaints about the companies with the Federal Trade Commission.

More information HERE



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AG Ferguson sues Trump administration for rule that authorizes transportation of liquefied natural gas in rail tank cars.

Friday, August 21, 2020

Attorney General Bob Ferguson today issued the following statement after his office filed a lawsuit challenging a new Trump Administration rule that authorizes nationwide transportation of liquefied natural gas in rail tank cars. 

This unlawful rule jeopardizes public health and safety by increasing the risk of catastrophic rail accidents and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

If the rule is not blocked, it will allow liquefied natural gas to be transported through Washington state by rail for the first time.

“Liquefied natural gas is a highly combustible fossil fuel, posing a risk of catastrophic accidents and spills,” Ferguson said. 
“The Trump Administration approved it for transport through our communities without considering those risks. This is only the latest example of the Trump Administration pushing decisions through without considering — or even flat-out ignoring — the dangers they might pose to the public.”

More information here



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AG Ferguson announces victory for Hanford workers

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced that a panel of judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously ruled that Washington has a right to create laws giving workers at Hanford Nuclear Reservation easier access to the benefits they deserve if they become ill because of their work at Hanford.




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AG Ferguson files federal lawsuits against three agencies for failing to produce records related to National Archives in Seattle

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

The Federal Archives building in north Seattle. It is due to be sold and the documents will be shipped to Missouri and California. The archives contain extensive local records including on the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Japanese-American internments, records from native tribes, and the history of the property itself, which was a farm belonging to a Japanese family who were forcibly removed.


Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuits today against three agencies involved in the January decision to close the Federal Archives and Records Center in Seattle, sell the building and move the records stored there to facilities more than 1,000 miles away.

Ferguson is also sending a letter to a fourth agency who is demanding tens of thousands of dollars to produce the requested records, informing them that if they continue to fail to produce the documents he is prepared to file a lawsuit against them, as well.

The lawsuits seek public records that Ferguson requested more than six months ago under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) related to the decision. Not one of the agencies has provided a single document to the Attorney General’s Office — an egregious violation of the key federal open government law.

Ferguson’s letter informs the PBRB that he is prepared to file a lawsuit if they do not produce the records he requested.

“The decision to close the National Archives in Seattle has far-reaching impacts across the Northwest,” Ferguson said. 
“The first-hand, historical records contained there is essential to the cultural fabric of our communities. 
"The federal government did not seek any local input on its decision to move these important records more than 1,000 miles away, and now illegally refuse to provide documents about how the decision was made. The people have a right to know.”

In January, the OMB approved a recommendation from the PBRB to sell the Federal Archives and Records Center on Sand Point Way in Seattle. The board’s recommendation included removing the contents of the Seattle archives and relocating them to National Archives facilities in Kansas City, Mo., and Riverside, Calif.

The Seattle archives contain many records essential to Washington’s historical record, including tens of thousands of files on the Chinese Exclusion Act, records on the internment of Japanese Americans, and tribal and treaty records of federally recognized tribes throughout the Northwest. Researchers, historians, genealogists and students routinely use these records.

More information here



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AG Ferguson sues California internet vaping retailer for illegal sales

Friday, August 14, 2020

Flavored vaping is aimed at youth
Photo from formm agency on Unsplash


State Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit Thursday against an Orange County-based company that marketed vapor products containing nicotine in a way that appealed to youth, then sold the products without verifying the buyers’ ages.

The company, E-Juice Vapors, failed to comply with numerous age verification requirements intended to prevent youth from purchasing vapor products online. 

Moreover, E-Juice Vapors never received a license from the state to deliver vapor products into Washington as required by Washington law.

The lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, seeks to block E-Juice Vapors’ future unlawful sales and obtain financial penalties to hold the company accountable for its unlawful conduct.

E-Juice Vapors refused to comply with the Attorney General’s investigation. Consequently, the number of total online sales into Washington remains unknown.




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Washington Attorney General defeats Facebook’s attempt to dismiss campaign finance lawsuit

Sunday, August 9, 2020

Attorney General Bob Ferguson

Attorney General Bob Ferguson issued the following statement Friday after King County Superior Court Judge Douglass A. North denied Facebook’s attempt to dismiss Ferguson’s campaign finance lawsuit against the multinational social media company:

“Today we defeated Facebook’s attempt to avoid its legal responsibility to Washington voters. 
"Facebook has repeatedly violated our campaign finance laws, and this is the second time we’ve taken legal action against Facebook for selling political ads without maintaining information for the public as required by Washington law. 
"Whether you’re a tech giant or a community newspaper, those who sell political ads must follow our campaign finance law. Washingtonians have a right to know who’s behind the ads seeking to influence their vote.”

In April, Ferguson filed a campaign finance lawsuit against Facebook for selling Washington state political ads without maintaining information for the public as required by Washington state campaign finance law. 

The complaint asserts that Facebook intentionally violated the state’s campaign finance disclosure law, which was first adopted by initiative in 1972 and reenacted and amended multiple times since 1976 by the Legislature.

This is the second time Ferguson has taken legal action against Facebook for similar violations of Washington’s law on political advertising. Ferguson’s June 2018 lawsuit resolved in December 2018 with Facebook paying $238,000 — a $200,000 penalty and an additional $38,000 to reimburse the state’s legal costs and fees.



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