Minnesota Attorney General Ellison reached a settlement with Minnesota Valley Cooperative Light and Power Association resolving allegations of deceptive and unfair practices, including disconnecting a customer's electricity despite the customer's need for life-sustaining medical equipment and failing to properly notify customers of consumer protections or offer appropriate payment plans. Under the consent judgment, the cooperative must provide separate disconnection notices, offer written payment plans, maintain records for AG oversight, and forgive amounts owed by the affected consumer.
Minnesota Valley must provide separate and distinct notices regarding potential disconnection, add information and resources to its website, stop conditioning payment plans on energy assistance, offer written payment plans, maintain records enabling Attorney General oversight, amend C.W.'s payment agreement, and forgive all amounts C.W. owed.
Although not a data privacy action, utility and service-provider agreements should be reviewed for clauses governing service termination and disconnection notice requirements, particularly provisions addressing customers with medical needs or other vulnerable populations. In-house teams at utilities or vendors serving regulated industries should verify that customer-facing terms align with statutory notice obligations (e.g., Minn. Stat. 216B.098), that payment plan and energy assistance terms do not create unlawful hurdles, and that record-retention clauses support regulator oversight and reporting requirements.
Entity
Minnesota Valley Cooperative Light and Power Association
Industry
OtherOfficial Press Release
https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Communications/2026/09/10_MN-Valley.asp
MN Valley Cooperative Consent Judgment
https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Communications/2026/docs/MN-Valley-Cooperative_Consent-Judgment.pdf
MN Valley Cooperative Complaint
https://ag.state.mn.us/Office/Communications/2026/docs/MN-Valley-Cooperative_Complaint.pdf
Minnesota Attorney General Enforcement Page
https://www.ag.state.mn.us/consumer/
"settlement with Minnesota Valley Cooperative Light and Power Association"
"reached a [settlement with Minnesota Valley Cooperative Light and Power Association](https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Communications/2026/docs/MN-Valley-Cooperative_Consent-Judgment.pdf)"
"Minnesota law clearly requires"
"its failure to properly notify its customers of consumer protections available to them by law, and its failure to offer appropriate payment plans"
"Minnesota Valley has agreed to provide separate and distinct notices to individuals regarding potential disconnection, to provide additional information and resources via its website, to stop using energy assistance as a hurdle customers had to jump in order to engage the cooperative in a payment plan, to offer written payment plans, and to maintain records enabling Attorney General oversight"
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit in Hennepin County against C4D, LLC, its owners Travis Benoit and Steven Legatt, and related entity Five Points Properties, LLC, alleging 18 counts of violating the Minnesota Human Rights Act, federal lending laws, and state consumer-fraud and contract-for-deed laws. The complaint alleges the defendants sold homes through predatory contracts for deed with inflated prices, hidden finance charges, and large annual balloon payments that leave buyers immediately underwater and forfeit all equity upon default, while targeting Somali-American Muslims on the basis of religion and national origin — a form of 'reverse redlining.' The AG seeks an injunction, civil penalties, and cancellation or reformation of existing contracts; no penalty amounts have been determined.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced the first round of restitution, issuing 8 refund checks totaling $38,634 to consumers harmed by Omega Dental Care, a defunct Eden Prairie dental clinic owned and operated by Anne Soberay. The refunds, paid from the state's Consumer Protection Restitution Account (CPRA), compensate consumers who paid out of pocket for dental services that were never provided. The refunds follow an earlier settlement between the AG's office and Omega Dental Care and Soberay. Note: this is a consumer protection (non-delivery of services) action, not a privacy enforcement action; no privacy violation types from the taxonomy apply.
$100K
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that used car dealer Midwest Car Search and its owner Scott Spiczka agreed to reform their business practices and pay $100,000 to resolve allegations that they violated Minnesota's Used Car Law and other consumer-protection laws through five deceptive practices, including fake 'certified' claims, illegally added vehicle service contracts, denied warranties, missing Buyer's Guide disclosures, and operating under an unregistered trade name that exploited Spanish speakers. The settlement resolves the AG's April 23, 2024 lawsuit and makes permanent a prior court order requiring the dealer to cease the deceptive conduct. Note: this is a consumer-protection enforcement action, not a privacy matter, so violation-type mapping to the privacy taxonomy is approximate.
The Minnesota Attorney General entered into a 10-year oversight agreement with Sanford Health and North Memorial Health to allow their merger to proceed, conditioned on commitments to invest $600 million in Minnesota hospitals, maintain core services including the Level 1 trauma center at Robbinsdale Hospital, honor collective-bargaining agreements, and maintain charity care and government program participation. The agreement also requires quarterly meetings and annual reporting to the Attorney General for 10 years.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed an opposition to X.AI's motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to block enforcement of Minnesota's anti-nudification law, which bans commercial platforms from allowing users to generate synthetic intimate images of real people. The court previously denied X.AI's motion for a temporary restraining order, and the law took effect August 1, 2026. The AG argues X.AI cannot show irreparable harm and is unlikely to prevail on the merits of its First Amendment claims.
$1.4M
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison reached a settlement with Stevens Community Medical Center (SCMC) over allegations that SCMC improperly calculated discounts required for uninsured patients with household incomes under $125,000, violating the Minnesota Hospital Agreement and state law. As a result, some uninsured patients were billed up to 20.5% more than allowed. SCMC must provide up to $1,412,776.25 in refunds or medical-debt reductions to potentially eligible patients.