Published: 09 May 2021 09 May 2021
Washington, DC - The Department of Justice, together with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), announced a $20 million settlement resolving alleged violations of the FTC Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), including violations of the Red Flags Rule. The settlement includes $15 million in civil penalties, which represents the largest civil penalty ever paid to resolve FCRA violations under the FTC Act.
Vivint Smart Home Inc. sells “smart” home security and monitoring systems, largely via a sales force that sells door-to-door. The complaint alleges that Vivint failed to implement an Identity Theft Prevention Program, allowing its sales representatives to obtain credit reports of unsuspecting consumers without the consumers’ knowledge or consent, and unfairly sold false debt to buyers or debt collectors. According to the complaint, the defendant’s lack of an Identity Theft Prevention Program violated the FTC’s Red Flags Rule, w
Friday, May 7, 2021
On April 29, 2021, the FTC announced a $20 million settlement with Vivint Smart Home, Inc. (Vivint), a national seller of in-home security and monitoring systems, based on violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the FTC Act, and the Red Flags Rule. Per the FTC, the settlement is the largest one to date for an FCRA case.
Vivint is well-known for employing a large commission-based door-to-door sales force. According to the allegations of the FTC complaint, its door-to-door sales practices exposed the company to liability. In order to complete a “new customer registration,” a Vivint sales representative must request and obtain from a credit reporting agency a consumer report to evaluate the creditworthiness of the potential customer. The FTC’s complaint details two methods employed by Vivint’s sales representatives to qualify an otherwise unqualified consumer to purchase a product.
Vivint reaches $20M settlement with FTC over allegations of fraudulent use of credit reports
This isn’t the first time the company’s salespeople have been accused of deceptive conduct.
| April 30, 2021, 2:29 a.m.
Utah home security company Vivint Smart Home Inc. has agreed to pay $20 million as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission after allegedly using credit reports fraudulently to help unqualified customers obtain financing for its products.
An FTC news release says Vivint’s door-to-door sales representatives would help customers qualify for loans by finding another consumer on the White Pages app with a similar-sounding name and using that unwitting person’s credit history in the application process. The sales representatives would also allegedly ask customers for the name of someone they knew who had better credit history, and then they would add that person as a co-signer to the account without their permission.
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Cox likes some of Biden’s infrastructure spending proposal
Governor Spencer Cox says there are some things in President Joe Biden’s proposal to improve the nation’s infrastructure, but he’s not on board with everything. Asked during a Thursday appearance on CNN what parts of Biden’s proposal he could get behind, Cox rattled off a few things he would support.
Press release content from Business Wire. The AP news staff was not involved in its creation.
Garner Meads of Vivint Smart Home Honored with a 2021 Utah Business Corporate Counsel Award
April 22, 2021 GMT
PROVO, Utah (BUSINESS WIRE) Apr 22, 2021
Vivint Smart Home, Inc. (NYSE: VVNT), a leading smart home company, today announced that Garner Meads, vice president and associate general counsel, is a 2021 Utah Business Corporate Counsel Award winner. The annual Utah Business Corporate Counsel Awards recognize exceptional in-house counselors who serve Utah’s businesses, nonprofits and other private-sector organizations.
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“Garner’s former life as an NCAA Division I basketball player speaks to his nature as the consummate team player and leader,” said Shawn Lindquist, chief legal officer at Vivint Smart Home. “Garner helps us win together by partnering with his business counterparts to effectively and ethically pursue initiatives that increase our competitive a