Rent-to-Own Company Sues to Block Imminent CFPB Enforcement (1)

A Texas-based rent-to-own company asked a federal judge to block a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau investigation into its operations ahead of an expected enforcement action.

Acima Digital LLC, a unit of Rent-a-Center parent company Upbound Group Inc., said that the CFPB has no authority to investigate and bring enforcement actions against Acima because the contracts it enters into with customers, as a rent- or lease-to-own company, aren’t loans. Companies like Acima are subject to extensive state regulations, the company said in a complaint filed Monday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

The CFPB’s nearly four-year ...