On December 19, 2025, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Fostering Affordability and Integrity through Reasonable (FAIR) Business Practices Act. The FAIR Act, which was proposed by Attorney General (AG) Tish James, represents the first major update to the state’s primary consumer protection law in 45 years and significantly broadens the statute’s reach.
For years, New York’s General Business Law § 349 prohibited only “deceptive” acts and practices, making it one of the country’s narrower state consumer protection laws. By expanding the statute to cover “unfair” and “abusive” acts and practices, the FAIR Act brings New York in line with most states that already prohibit these broader categories of conduct. This expansion, however, only applies to the AG — the statute’s private right of action remains limited to deceptive acts and practices.
The amendments include definitions of “unfair” and “abusive” that are derived from federal laws enforced by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission. The incorporation of these federal standards underscores James’s message that she intends to use her expanded authority to fill gaps in federal consumer protection enforcement.
In addition to expanding General Business Law § 349 to cover unfair and abusive conduct, the FAIR Act overrides judicial precedent that had confined the law to conduct that is “consumer-oriented” or that affects the public at large. The amendments explicitly state that an unfair, deceptive, or abusive act or practice is actionable by the AG regardless of whether it is consumer-oriented. One reason for this change is the state’s desire to expand the law’s protections to small businesses and nonprofits in addition to individuals.
Finally, the amendments include a provision that purports to give the law extraterritorial reach. Under the FAIR Act, the AG is authorized to enforce the law against any person conducting any business, trade, or commerce or furnishing a service in New York, whether the person “is without the state.” Conversely, the AG also may purportedly enforce the law against any person within the state conducting any business, trade, or commerce or furnishing a service, whether or not the business, trade, commerce, or service is conducted or furnished without the state.
Like the statute’s expansion to cover “unfair” and “abusive” acts and practices, the amendments addressing the “consumer-oriented” requirement and extraterritoriality apply only in actions by the AG — not in actions by private parties.
In a press release celebrating the law’s enactment, the AG’s office highlighted some of the acts and practices that the office may deem unfair or abusive, including:
- Lenders and loan servicers steering borrowers to higher cost loans and repayment plans;
- Companies taking advantage of individuals with limited English proficiency;
- Companies obscuring pricing information and fees;
- Debt collectors collecting and refusing to return assets that are exempt from collection, such as Social Security benefits;
- Car dealers charging for warranties that were not actually purchased and holding a customer’s photo ID until a transaction is finalized; and
- Companies filing lawsuits without any basis for asserting liability.
The legislation takes effect on February 17, 2026.
Why It Matters
The FAIR Act significantly expands the scope of potential liability and increases enforcement and litigation risk for companies subject to its provisions. Businesses should reassess compliance programs, marketing practices, billing structures, and other policies to account for the broader standards now in effect and the law’s purported extraterritorial reach. The law also reflects an increasingly active state-level consumer protection environment, and the New York AG’s enforcement activity under the law may influence enforcement trends in other jurisdictions.
In September, the FAIR Act was the focus of a crossover episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast and Regulatory Oversight, which is available here.
Troutman Pepper Locke will continue to monitor and report on implementation, enforcement trends, and emerging case law under the FAIR Business Practices Act.
