Penalty Amount
$375,000
New York Attorney General Letitia James secured $375,000 from 1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. for misleading consumers and enrolling them in automatically-renewing paid subscriptions without clear disclosure or consent. The settlement requires 1-800-Flowers to pay penalties, change its subscription practices, and provide refunds to eligible subscribers.
1-800-Flowers must pay $375,000 in penalties, provide refunds to eligible New York subscribers who filed complaints and to eligible consumers nationwide who purchased the Celebrations Passport but did not use the benefits. The company must also improve disclosures, obtain informed affirmative consent for subscriptions, provide post-purchase acknowledgments with cancellation information, and notify consumers before automatic renewal.
In-house legal teams should review customer-facing subscription agreements and terms of service to ensure they clearly disclose auto-renewal terms, obtain affirmative consent, provide post-purchase acknowledgments, and include easy cancellation mechanisms. They should also audit vendor agreements with third-party billing or subscription management providers to ensure compliance with New York General Business Law and similar state automatic renewal statutes. Key clauses to update include those governing subscription terms, consent checkboxes, renewal notifications, and refund policies.
Entity
1-800-Flowers.com, Inc.
Industry
RetailOfficial Press Release
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2026/attorney-general-james-secures-375000-1-800-flowers-deceiving-consumers-about
1 800 flowers.com inc assurance of discontinuance 2026
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/settlements-agreements/1-800-flowers.com-inc-assurance-of-discontinuance-2026.pdf
New York Attorney General Enforcement Page
https://ag.ny.gov/press-releases
"1-800-Flowers.com, Inc."
"$375,000"
"failed to clearly disclose the terms of a subscription service that included free shipping, failed to provide consumers with the subscription acknowledgment required by New York law, and did not notify subscribers before the subscription renewed automatically"
"must pay $375,000 in penalties, change its subscription practices, and offer restitution to subscribers"
"New York law requires subscription terms to be clearly disclosed"
$352K
New York Attorney General Letitia James settled with Brooklyn High Rise LLC for illegally denying housing to prospective tenants based on housing court records, a practice known as tenant blacklisting. The company also charged non-refundable 'good faith' deposits. Brooklyn High Rise will pay $352,250 in penalties and restitution and must end its unlawful tenant screening practices.
New York Attorney General Letitia James issued an industry alert urging workers with knowledge of unsafe or illegal conduct in AI development to file confidential complaints through the OAG's secure whistleblower portal. The alert cites the OAG's monitoring of cybersecurity, economic, and other safety risks from emerging AI, and highlights the RAISE Act (effective January 1, 2027), which will require large AI developers to publicly disclose safety measures and report security incidents, as well as the SHIELD Act's data security requirements. No company was named, charged, or penalized; the alert signals impending OAG enforcement authority over AI developers.
$700.0M
New York Attorney General Letitia James, leading a bipartisan coalition of 39 other states, the District of Columbia, and Hawaii's Office of Consumer Protection, secured a $700 million settlement from Credit Acceptance Corporation (CAC), a subprime auto lender, resolving allegations of deceptive and abusive lending. The lawsuit alleged CAC pushed tens of thousands of consumers into unaffordable loans with average interest rates above 38 percent, bundled with expensive add-on products consumers were told were mandatory or never told about, causing widespread defaults and vehicle repossessions. Note: this is a consumer-lending enforcement action rather than a privacy matter, so no privacy violation categories from the taxonomy apply.
$700K
New York Attorney General Letitia James secured a settlement with two Mt. Kisco car dealerships, DARCARS Lexus and DARCARS BMW, that deceptively charged a two percent 'sales commission' fee that was optional, provided no consumer benefit, and was never paid to the salesperson, and that misleadingly bundled a low-value aftermarket product ('DARCARS Assurance') into sales and lease agreements as if it were mandatory. The dealerships will pay more than $1.17 million in consumer refunds (with potentially millions more through a claims process) plus $700,000 in penalties. They must clearly disclose all future fees and add-ons, are banned from selling DARCARS Assurance or similar junk bundles at any New York dealership, and must conduct annual fair-business-practices training for all employees.
New York Attorney General Letitia James led a bipartisan coalition of 17 other state attorneys general in sending a letter to Congress opposing the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, warning that the bill would preempt state attorneys general authority to combat cryptocurrency fraud and scams. This is a legislative advocacy action, not an enforcement action against any company, and no penalties or remedies were imposed. The coalition urged Congress to preserve state enforcement power over both tokenized and non-tokenized securities and state crypto registration regimes.
$8.0M
New York Attorney General Letitia James secured an $8 million settlement from VGW Holdings Pty. Ltd. and its affiliates for unlawfully operating online sweepstakes casinos — Chumba Casino, Global Poker, and Luckyland Slots — that allowed New Yorkers to play casino games with virtual coins exchangeable for cash or prizes. The OAG's June 2025 cease and desist letter stopped the company from offering virtual coin gambling in New York, and Governor Hochul signed a formal ban on sweepstakes casinos into law in December 2025. Under the settlement, VGW will pay $8 million in disgorgement, penalties, and costs; note this is an illegal-gambling enforcement action rather than a privacy matter, so no privacy violation taxonomy categories apply.