HARRISBURG — Attorney General Michelle Henry announced a $950,000 settlement, pending court approval, with Progressive Leasing, a Utah-based rent-to-own company that offered Pennsylvanians expensive leases of furniture, as well as other products and services.
The Attorney General sued Progressive in August 2022, alleging that Progressive had failed to comply with the Rental Purchase Agreement Act that required lessors to place physical tags — with complete financing cost information — on goods offered for rent. The cost of rent-to-own financing is typically equivalent to a loan with 152% APR interest.
As a result of the settlement, the Office of Attorney General will distribute $850,000 in restitution to eligible consumers who paid back significantly more than the price of the item they rented. In addition, Progressive will cancel balances for 972 consumers who entered into rental purchases prior to September 8, 2022.
“Consumers should be aware ahead of time that rent-to-own products are often significantly more expensive than traditional financing and purchasing,” Attorney General Henry said. “Progressive failed to provide the required up-front physical disclosures of the costs associated with its products and this settlement holds the company accountable for its failure to follow the law.”
Impacted consumers do not need to take any action to receive debt cancellation or restitution under the settlement. Consumers due relief will be contacted by either Progressive (for debt cancellation) or the Attorney General’s settlement administrator (for restitution).
Prior to September 2022, the Rental Purchase Agreement Act required certain terms of rent-to-own transactions to be disclosed to consumers via a tag attached to the product offered for rent. Since September 2022, the RPAA has allowed businesses to provide the disclosures electronically, provided that the business confirms “that a prospective lessee has viewed and affirmatively acknowledged the disclosures required under subsection (b) prior to presenting a rental-purchase agreement to the prospective lessee for execution.”
Progressive offers its leases through its website and by partnering with brick and mortar stores throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The lawsuit alleged that Progressive failed to provide the hang tags and failed to instruct or require its merchant partners to display the required hang tags.
This is the latest in a series of more than a dozen Office of Attorney General enforcement actions against businesses that failed to comply with the RPAA. In May 2023, Attorney General Henry announced a settlement with Snap Finance valued at $11.4 million. In 2022, the Office of Attorney General announced settlements with Ashley HomeStore, Mattress Firm, Big Lots, and other retailers that operate a total of 175 brick and mortar furniture stores in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvanians who believe they have been the victim of unlawful business practices committed by a rent-to-own company or any other business should file a complaint online or contact the Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection at scams@attorneygeneral.gov.
The case was led by Assistant Director for Consumer Financial Protection Nicholas F. B. Smyth, with significant work by Deputy Attorney General Christopher T. Dey.
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