Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador announced his Consumer Protection Division returned a record amount to Idaho consumers through voluntary dispute resolution in the first half of 2026, with more than $956,000 recovered without the need for lawsuits or court orders through the end of June.
After Labrador reorganized the division in mid-2025 to strengthen investigations and consumer outreach, the division returned more than $1.1 million to Idaho consumers by the end of 2025. The first six months of 2026 are already on pace to exceed that full-year total. Combined, the last 18 months have returned more money to Idaho consumers through voluntary mediation than all previous years combined since the office began tracking the figures in 2017.
The division also brought 49 consumer protection enforcement cases in 2025, compared with 8 in 2023 and 17 in 2024 — a 600% increase over two years.
“My Consumer Protection Division is making a real difference for Idaho families and honest businesses,” Labrador said. “These numbers show what this office was built to do: hold bad actors accountable and give Idahoans a fair shot at resolving disputes without the cost and delay of a courtroom.”
The Consumer Protection Division handles more than 2,000 complaints a year, ranging from contractor fraud worth tens of thousands of dollars to reports of misleading advertising, submitted by phone, mail, online and through the newly launched ReportScamsIdaho.com. A team of three investigators, three attorneys and support staff manages the caseload.
Voluntary mediation, which resolves disputes without a formal finding that the law was broken, gives consumers and businesses a chance to compare facts and reach a resolution without formal proceedings. When a business’s conduct rises to a violation of the Idaho Consumer Protection Act, the attorney general pursues formal enforcement, which can result in court judgments, penalties and Assurances of Voluntary Compliance requiring businesses to correct their practices. The division also litigates multistate cases and class actions, including settlements involving tobacco, opioid manufacturers and pharmaceutical price-fixing.
By: DNU News wire