Acima Digital, LLC and its parent Acima Holdings, LLC agreed on Thursday a $183.5m settlement with a coalition of 43 US state attorneys general over alleged deception and inflation of costs and fees in rent-to-own agreements.
The settlement consists of $43m in consumer restitution, $10.5m to the states and lease balance reductions totalling $130m, according to Pennsylvania’s Office of Attorney General.
Pennsylvania consumers are expected to receive more than $5m in restitution and lease forgiveness relief. Attorney General Dave Sunday said almost 9,000 Pennsylvanian consumers would have their leases paid off, forgiven or money returned.
Sunday said that “in many cases, we found Acima caused more financial strain and stress for lessees”.
The coalition is led by Pennsylvania, Colorado and Tennessee. The consent petition was filed in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and is pending approval by the court.
The consent judgment states there is no admission of wrongdoing. Acima appears through Matthew P. Previn of Paul Hastings LLP.
The states allege that Acima marketed its rental-purchase agreements as 90-day pay-off programmes without disclosing that consumers were automatically placed into the maximum 12-month term. In that term, they allege, consumers could pay approximately twice the cash price advertised by Acima’s retail partner.
They also allege that Acima used terms such as “credit”, which often misled consumers into believing they were obtaining traditional financing, and that its electronic signing process obscured the terms. The states further allege that Acima hindered consumers from ending agreements without penalty by returning the merchandise.
Pennsylvania’s complaint was brought under the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, 73 P.S. § 201-1 and following. It alleges the markup of the cash price was as much as approximately $100 and was often equivalent to the amount of the initial lease payment.
The complaint also alleges that Acima often began charging consumers seven days after delivery, although its agreements stated charges would start no sooner than seven days after the delivery date. It seeks civil penalties of $1,000 for each wilful violation.
The case follows federal action that did not run its course. New Jersey’s Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Acima in 2024 over these practices, but permanently dropped its case in 2025.
Davenport said: “When financing companies deceive consumers about their pricing, they both break our laws and make the affordability crisis even worse for families working hard to make ends meet.”
Under the consent judgment, Acima agrees to a set of injunctive terms:
- training its retail partners;
- refraining from certain advertising representations unless other material information is clearly and conspicuously disclosed;
- not obscuring material terms during the electronic signature process;
- not marking up the cash price from that of its retail partners;
- not obstructing consumers from ending agreements by returning merchandise;
- not reporting rental-purchase agreements to the three main credit reporting agencies for five years; and
- handling late deliveries, merchandise damaged on delivery and repairs where state law or the agreement requires it.
The judgment defines the cash price as the lowest price at which the retailer offers or advertises the merchandise. It bars Acima’s advertising from representing that consumers will only pay the cash price.
The retailer training provisions run for five years from 150 days after the effective date. They can be extended to seven years if Acima is adjudicated by a court to have violated a retailer training provision.
Reporting to Equifax, Experian or TransUnion may resume after five years for agreements originated after the effective date.
The other states in the settlement are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.