Each week, Crowell & Moring's State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. See our State Attorneys General page for more insights. Below are the updates from July 17-30, 2025:
Multistate
- A multistate coalition of 20 attorneys general announced the filing of a complaint challenging the allegedly unlawful final rule promulgated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that the coalition argues will create significant barriers to obtaining healthcare under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The complaint asserts that the HHS and CMS rule is unlawful, arbitrary and capricious, and would cause significant harm to states and their residents. It further asserts that the final rule imposes burdensome and costly paperwork requirements, limits the opportunities to sign up for health coverage, substantially increases cost-sharing limits, and forces exchanges and consumers to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to prove eligibility for coverage and subsidies, resulting in direct and immediate costs to states as well as harms tied to decreased enrollment.
- A multistate coalition of 20 attorneys general filed an amicus brief urging the federal judge overseeing the case in Mid-America Milling Company v. United States Department of Transportation to uphold the proposed consent order that would end the federal government's enforcement of engaging in alleged race-based preferences in the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program. According to the DBE webpage housed on the U.S. Department of Transportation's website, this program is designed to ensure that small businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals have a fair opportunity to compete for federally funded transportation contracts. According to the Idaho attorney general, the "federal mandate forces states to sometimes reject the most qualified, cost-effective contractors based solely on the race and gender of business owners, resulting in higher costs for taxpayers."
Arizona
- Attorney General Mayes announced an investigation into Thin Blue Line Benefits Association LLC and Thin Blue Line Benefits Association Holdings LLC, a company that administered health plans to retired law enforcement and fire personnel. The investigation follows a referral from the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions alleging that Thin Blue Line Benefits Association operated as an unlicensed insurer in Arizona and was not paying claims for medical services and was unresponsive to consumer and health provider inquiries. The Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions also issued a cease-and-desist against the company to halt its unlicensed operations in Arizona
California
- Attorney General Bonta announced a nearly $2 million settlement with a company that provides janitorial franchising and commercial cleaning services, CleanNet USA, resolving allegations that CleanNet misclassified employees as independent contractors under state law, which denied these employees protections provided by California's employment laws. As part of the settlement, CleanNet USA will pay $1,700,000 in restitution and $150,000 in civil penalties and cease its misclassification of certain employees and undergo three years of compliance monitoring.
Colorado
- Attorney General Weiser sued PetSmart, a pet superstore that sells pet products and services, for allegedly keeping dog groomers in contracts that violated the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. PetSmart allegedly promised free training to dog groomers, but instead the company used training repayment agreement provision contracts to lock employees into their jobs for at least two years and threatened legal action for repayment of training and tools if employees left their employment prior to the two years. The suit seeks payment of fines to the state and prevents the company from collecting on any money owed by employees from existing training repayment agreement provisions.
Kentucky
- Attorney General Coleman announced the filing of a lawsuit against Temu, the Chinese online shopping platform, for allegedly unlawfully collecting data, violating customers' privacy and counterfeiting some of Kentucky's well-known brands. The complaint alleges that Temu (1) illegally collects users' data without their knowledge and consent; (2) allows unfettered access of that data to the Chinese Communist government; (3) steals the intellectual property of U.S.-owned companies, including some of Kentucky's well-known brands including the University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Buffalo Trace Distillery and Churchill Downs; and (4) uses forced labor from Chinese ethnic minorities in clear violation of U.S. trade policies.
Michigan
- Attorney General Nessel announced an investigation into Pure Tonic Marketing Ltd., a company believed to be based in Seychelles, and the unknown operator of Ticket Squeeze for allegedly operating a ticket resale scheme targeting consumers seeking tickets to events at the University of Michigan's Hill Auditorium. It its petition, the Office of the Attorney General alleges that Pure Tonic operated the website thehillauditorium.com, a domain that appeared to be the official site for Hill Auditorium. However, the website was unrelated to the venue or the university. The website also reportedly advertised tickets to upcoming events at the venue and redirected users to ticketsqueeze.com to purchase, where tickets were allegedly sold at grossly excessive prices under the guise of "cheaper" or "low" rates.
Massachusetts
- Attorney General Campbell announced a $1.045 million settlement with Traveler's Transit, Inc. (Traveler's), a Millville-based non-emergency transportation provider, resolving allegations that the company submitted false claims to MassHealth and the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) for contracted routes not actually driven and failed to have required staff monitors onboard for certain routes. As part of the settlement, Traveler's will pay $1.045 million to the Commonwealth, including for restitution to MassHealth and DDS, and implement a three-year independent compliance monitoring program at its own expense.
Washington
- Attorney General Brown announced that starting on July 27, 2025, Washington will require companies to file a premerger notification to the Washington Attorney General's Office contemporaneously with filing a premerger notification to the federal government under the Hart-Scott -Rodino Act. This new state law applies to companies based in Washington, companies that generate a certain amount of relevant sales in Washington, or hospitals, hospital systems, or provider organizations in Washington or transactions between a Washington state entity and an out-of-state entity, if the out-of-state entity generates a certain amount in health care services revenue from Washington patients.
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