Ticket company must pay $9M — all money it owes to consumers nationwide

SEATTLE — A King County Superior Court judge ruled that Navient, the country’s largest student loan servicer, violated the Consumer Protection Act by engaging in unfair and deceptive conduct related to Washingtonians’ student loans. This is the first time a judge has ruled that Navient broke a consumer protection law in a student loan servicing lawsuit filed by a state’s Attorney General or federal consumer protection agency.

Scammers made more than 1.7 million robocalls into Washington state, pocketed 90 cents of every dollar they claimed to raise for charity

SEATTLE — As a result of a lawsuit brought by Attorney General Bob Ferguson, 39 other attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), two national companies that made more than 1.7 million robocalls for sham charities into Washington state will pay $495,000 to help fund legitimate charities. One company has since gone out of business and today’s lawsuit requires another one to dissolve.

Bill creates enhanced penalties for price gouging on necessities during an emergency

OLYMPIA — The Washington state Senate today passed Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s bill to prohibit price gouging in Washington during an emergency by a 29-20 vote. The bill now heads to the state House of Representatives for consideration.

Bill would create first statewide database of use-of-force data, annual report to legislature

OLYMPIA — On Monday afternoon, by an overwhelmingly bipartisan 46-2 vote, state senators passed a bill Attorney General Bob Ferguson requested to create a database of police use-of-force incidents so the public, policymakers, researchers and law enforcement can access the data. Currently in Washington state, there is no central repository for use-of-force data.

Report finds some investigations failed to involve non-law enforcement community representatives, a key requirement of I-940 rules

Lawsuit asserts Google has continued violating state law after Ferguson’s first campaign finance lawsuit against the company in 2018

OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a campaign finance lawsuit today against Google for unlawfully failing to maintain key information regarding state political ads that it sold, and failing to provide that information to individuals who requested it.

OLYMPIA — The Attorney General’s Office is continuing its review of the Manuel Ellis case. While we are limited in what we can say about that review, we wanted to provide a short update of our work, and the anticipated timing of our decision.

The Washington State Patrol referred this case to the Attorney General’s Office in November. Our review of this case is the top priority of our Criminal Justice Division.

Decision invalidates Federal Railroad Administration’s deregulatory rule, allows Washington to enforce minimum train crew-size requirements

Court will determine restitution at a future date

SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced a judge ruled that StarKist, a canned tuna manufacturer, engaged in a price-fixing scheme from November 2011 through December 2013. In a prior and unrelated federal case against StarKist, a federal judge sentenced the company to pay a $100 million criminal fine — the maximum allowed by law — for its role in a nationwide conspiracy to manipulate the price of canned tuna to benefit the company and its executives.