Announcements, information and updates from the AG Alliance Members and Associates
June 3rd, 2021
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UPCOMING EVENTS
2021 Summer Annual Meeting
Hosted by: Attorney General Alliance

We are excited to welcome the Attorney General community to our Annual Summer Meeting. We are honored and appreciative of the strong response and support we have had by our community and are excited to have the first bipartisan gathering of Attorneys General since pre-pandemic days! We regret the Annual Meeting sold out so quickly and look forward to expanded programing and attendance in our program in the coming months. Please see our draft agenda below.
ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTIONS
CONSUMER PROTECTION



COMBATTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING

  • Mississippi AG Fitch's Office successfully executed three undercover human trafficking operations over the last two weeks. The operations resulted in the location and rescue of twenty human trafficking victims and at least six arrests.

TOBACCO

  • Texas AG Paxton announced a settlement agreement with major tobacco companies that will result in $195 million paid to Texas. The lawsuit arose out of the 1998 Texas Tobacco Settlement Agreement, by which major tobacco companies must make annual payments to Texas to reimburse it for smoking-related health care costs. 
ENVIRONMENTAL


  • Connecticut AG Tong joined a coalition of nine attorneys general urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to strengthen its certification policies for new natural gas pipelines to scrutinize disproportionate impacts on overburdened environmental justice communities.
HOT TOPICS
SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY

  • Arizona AG Brnovich announced that his office settled civil rights cases involving Uber Eats, Postmates, and DoorDash regarding allegations of discrimination based on race. The Companies can no longer offer price distinctions based on a person’s race.


COMBATTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
CONSUMER PROTECTION


  • Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a proposed settlement against Driver Loan, LLC, and its CEO. If entered by the court, the settlement would require the defendants to refund about $1 million in deposits to harmed consumers, stop deceptive practices, and pay a civil penalty. 

COVID-19 RELIEF


  • Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America announced its participation in America’s Job Creators for a Strong Recovery, a new coalition group of dozens of associations dedicated to the opposition of tax increases on American-owned businesses that have the potential to reduce jobs and hamper COVID-19 recovery efforts.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FOR ONGOING SOCIAL JUSTICE & EQUITY INITIATIVES

Over the last year, communities across the country have assessed their treatment of minorities and other under-represented populations. In an effort to facilitate dialogue in the Attorney General community, Amazon and the Attorney General Alliance have partnered to create a series of conversations exploring issues around justice and social equity. We are excited to announce 2021 as the inaugural year of this forum and we look forward to providing focused programing aimed at facilitating exploration of these issues. We thank Amazon for their leadership and invite all of our public and private partners join us as we embark on these discussions.
VIRTUAL SEMINAR LIBRARY
Consumer Alerts and COVID-19 Scams 
Thursday May 27th from 1-1:40pm ET
Moderated by Attorney General Steve Marshall, Alabama

The pandemic has seen an unprecedented increase in unemployment fraud, where bad actors are using social security numbers to illegally obtain COVID-19 unemployment relief funds. Jessica Whitney from the Iowa AGs office will discuss what they are doing to protect consumers, track and combat such fraud and share best practices for moving forward. Matt McGuire of Shopify will discuss Shopify's approach to combating fraudulent and illegal COVID-19 products, including what the company is doing to track and take down fraudulent vaccine cards and vaccines themselves. Finally, Michael Scholl from Starkey will discuss modifications in regulations around medical devices that have led to several offices putting out senior alerts on hearing aids. 

Panelists:
  • Jessica Whitney, Deputy Attorney General for Public Protection, Office of the Attorney General of Iowa
  • Matt McGuire, Senior Legal Counsel, Global Regulatory Affairs and Enforcement, Shopify
  • Michael Scholl, Chief Compliance Officer and Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations, Starkey
Missed our live programs? No problem! Follow the button below to visit our Virtual Seminar Library for access to all recordings.

Do you have a webinar topic suggestion? We want to hear from you! Please email ideas to Andrea Friedman at AFriedman@AGAlliance.org.
CWAG Executive Committee
- AG Wayne Stenehjem - AG Phil Weiser -
- AG Jason Ravnsborg - AG Hector Balderas -

AG Alliance Co-Chairs
- AG Lawrence Wasden - AG Sean Reyes - AG Karl Racine -
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