Washington Consumer Protection Act (CPA)

Vanessa Soriano Power
Partner, Litigation

Transcript

One of the types of litigation that I have done over the years is to defend against claims that are brought for violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act, call it the CPA. CPA claims can either be brought by a private individual or company against a defendant or by the Washington Attorney General. We have seen a number of cases in the recent past that have been brought by the Attorney General's office. And our AG's office has built a very robust division specifically committed to consumer protection claims. This is to ensure that consumers in the state of Washington are getting what they pay for, that they are working with businesses that are complying with the law. Our clients, however, in some cases, are being investigated for potential violations of that act and sometimes being prosecuted for potential violations of that Act. What we have seen over the years is some changes in the penalties under the CPA as well as just the process for enforcement under the CPA. We have developed some tools and some practices to work with our clients when they are hit with CID, a civil investigative demand, and to help guide them when they are named as a defendant in a case that claims that they have violated the CPA.