Rent-to-own furniture company Acima Digital will pay $184 million to settle case originally brought by the Trump-weakened Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport and other state AGs announced the $183.5 million settlement today. The settlement consists of $43 million in restitution for the benefit of consumers, a $10.5 million payment to the states, and lease balance reductions totaling $130 million.
“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,” Davenport said.
Acima is a rent-to-own finance company that partners with retailers to offer financing to consumers via rental-purchase agreements. In 2024, Acima was sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) over these practices, but in 2025, the CFPB permanently dropped its case against Acima after President Trump slashed the bureau’s budget and threatened to eliminate it.
Today’s settlement with 43 states resolves allegations that Acima misled consumers by advertising its rental-purchase agreements in a deceptive way. It also addresses claims that Acima inflated the cash price of rented merchandise and engaged in other deceptive practices related to its rental agreements, debt collection activities, and credit reporting.
“This settlement sends a clear message that companies in the rent-to-own industry must be transparent with consumers about the true cost of their products and services,” said New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs Acting Director Christopher Peterson. “Hardworking families — often with limited access to traditional credit — were misled about the nature of these rental-purchase agreements and ended up paying far more than they bargained for.”
90-day pay-off
The bipartisan multistate coalition of 43 states alleged that Acima marketed its rental-purchase agreements as 90-day pay-off programs without disclosing that consumers were automatically defaulted into the maximum 12-month term whereby consumers could pay approximately two times the cash price advertised by Acima’s retail partner.
Acima also advertised its rental-purchase product using terms like “credit,” which often misled consumers into believing that they were obtaining traditional financing. Acima’s process for electronically executing rental-purchase agreements also obscured the terms of the transaction, further compounding consumer confusion.
Additionally, Acima obstructed consumers’ ability to terminate their rental-purchase agreements without penalty by returning their merchandise to Acima.
Under the settlement, Acima has agreed to injunctive terms to address these practices, including to:
Conduct robust training of its retail partners;
Refrain from making certain representations in its advertising unless other material information is clearly and conspicuously disclosed;
Refrain from obscuring the material terms and conditions of its rental-purchase agreements during the electronic-signature process;
Refrain from marking up the cash price from that of Acima’s retail partners;
Refrain from obstructing consumers’ ability to terminate their rental-purchase agreements by returning the merchandise to Acima;
Refrain from reporting rental-purchase agreements to the big three credit reporting agencies for a period of five years; and
Properly handle late deliveries, merchandise damaged at the time of delivery, and adhere to legal obligations to make repairs to merchandise during the course of the lease.
No action required
Consumers who are eligible to obtain restitution or lease under the settlement do not need to take any action. Consumers eligible to receive restitution will be contacted by the settlement administrator. Consumers who are eligible to receive lease forgiveness will be contacted by Acima.
Attorney General Davenport is joined in today’s settlement by the attorneys general of Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.