Other LanguagesA King County Superior Court judge today ruled that multi-billion dollar telecommunications conglomerate Comcast violated the Consumer Protection Act more than 445,000 times when it charged tens of thousands of Washingtonians for its Service Protection Plan without their consent. Judge Timothy Bradshaw ordered Comcast to pay nearly $9.1 million in penalties, in addition providing restitution to tens of thousands of Washington Service Protection Plan customers.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced consumers have an additional month to obtain their share of a nearly $40 million recovery in Ferguson’s CRT price-fixing case. The deadline to file a claim is extended to June 17, 2019.
El procurador general Bob Ferguson anunció hoy que los consumidores cuentan con un mes más para obtener su parte de los casi $40 millones recuperados por Ferguson en el caso de fijación de precios de CRT. El plazo para presentar una solicitud de indemnización se extiende hasta el 17 de junio del 2019.
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that, in order to avoid a lawsuit, five additional corporate chains eliminated no-poach practices nationwide, entering into legally enforceable agreements to remove the clauses from franchise contracts. The five chains have 73 locations in Washington and more than 2,500 locations nationwide. This brings the total number of corporate chains that have signed legally binding agreements with Ferguson to 62.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced today that CHI Franciscan will pay up to $2.5 million to resolve a federal antitrust lawsuit Ferguson filed against the Tacoma-based non-profit health system in 2017. CHI Franciscan is also required to divest its controlling interest in an outpatient surgery center it acquired in Silverdale, restoring competition for services on the Kitsap Peninsula.
OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson and 43 other attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Teva Pharmaceuticals, the largest generic drug manufacturer in the world, and 20 other companies for conspiring in secret to increase prices of 116 common medications, including everyday antibiotics, antidepressants, contraceptives and statins.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that, as a result of his lawsuit, St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma and seven other CHI Franciscan hospitals will forgive as much as $20 million in debt, pay $2.22 million in refunds, pay the Attorney General’s Office $2.46 million, and rehabilitate the credit of thousands of patients who qualified for charity care between 2012 and 2017 but did not receive it. CHI Franciscan entered into a legally enforceable agreement to reform its charity care practices across all eight of its acute care hospitals. Attorney General Ferguson sued St. Joseph Medical Center, but the resolution involves charity care reforms for eight CHI Franciscan hospitals and provides restitution for patients withheld charity care at all eight hospitals.
OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s today announced that Johnson & Johnson will pay $9.9 million to avoid going to trial for misrepresentations and failure to include serious risks in the instructions and marketing materials for surgical mesh devices. Ferguson is the first state attorney general to file a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson regarding surgical mesh devices.
Today, with a bipartisan vote of 31-17 in the Washington State Senate, state legislators passed a bill prohibiting “pocket service” debt collection practices, which allow debt collectors to blindside consumers with default judgments in order to seize wages, bank account funds, or other assets.
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that national hotel chain Motel 6 will pay $12 million to resolve his lawsuit against the company for voluntarily providing guest lists to agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a routine basis for over two years.