Arizona Consumer Fraud Act

The AFCA was first introduced as House Bill 114 by Arizona House Republican majority leader D. Delos Ellsworth. The minutes from the House Commerce and Industry Committee said this:

House Bill 114 was introduced by Chairman Ellsworth who then introduced Attorney General Darrell Smith to explain the purpose of this Bill and their reasons for endorsing it. He stated that this Bill is to stop the fraud that now exists in the selling of many goods to the consumer, and the need for legislation to protect them from such. Mr. Smith introduced Mr. Philip Marquardt, an assistant on the staff of the Attorney General. Mr. Marquardt gave additional information in explaining that this Bill will also protect the merchant as well as the consumer from such frauds. It will also help to retain money for the state that is now being taken out of the state by those who are defrauding and leaving the state immediately thereafter and moving on to other places.

House Bill 114 was passed as an emergency measure and signed into law by Jack Williams on March 13, 1967.^[5]

In 2015 Arizona applied consumer fraud law for the first time against pharmaceutical companies, joining Illinois and Minnesota. The Arizona Court of Appeals allowed action under the ACFA against Medicis Pharmaceutical for marketing acne medication containing minocycline,^[6][7] known to cause a lupus-like autoimmune response.^[8]

In the 2012 case of State of Arizona vs AutoZone, AutoZone was charged under the ACFA for multiple instances of mispricing merchandise from 2001 - 2006. The state of Arizona sought disgorgement instead of returning funds to consumers. After review, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled disgorgement was not authorized under the ACFA.^[9][10]

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced April 19, 2016 legal action against Volkswagen for violating the ACFA after the company admitted to using defeat devices to skew vehicle emissions in 2015. Around 4,000 Arizona residents were affected, placing the potential penalty at $40 million.^[11][12]

Diamond Resorts settled for $800,000 on December 23, 2016, after the company was sued by Arizona under the ACFA for misleading consumers about timeshares. Some of the allegations included increasing maintenance fees, membership resale and buy-back programs, timeshare resale market, ability to rent timeshares, and discounts on travel needs.^[13][14]

Arizona brought an ACFA case against Theranos, reaching a $4.65 million settlement in 2017. Arizona consumers who were affected received refunds in the mail. The average refund was $60.92. The largest refund was $3,411. Under the terms of the settlement Theranos was banned for two years from blood-testing.^[15][16]

Attorney General Brnovich announced a $6.28 million settlement with General Motors LLC in March 2018 as part of a faulty ignition switch-related settlement. Under the settlement, approximately 33,000 Arizona consumers who purchased GM vehicles between July 2009 and July 2014 are eligible for payments.^[17] Consumers will receive a minimum of $200 each. Arizona was the only state to obtain restitution directly for consumers.^[18]