(1) The administrator may bring a civil action to restrain a creditor or a person acting in the creditor's behalf from engaging in a course of:
Making or enforcing unconscionable terms or provisions of consumer credit transactions;
Fraudulent or unconscionable conduct in inducing consumers to enter into consumercredit transactions;
Conduct of any of the types specified in paragraph (a) or (b) of this subsection (1) with respect to transactions that give rise to or lead persons to believe they will give rise to consumer credit transactions; or
Fraudulent or unconscionable conduct in the collection of debts arising from consumer credit transactions.
(2) In an action brought pursuant to this section, the court may grant relief only if it finds:
That the respondent has made unconscionable agreements or has engaged or is likelyto engage in a course of fraudulent or unconscionable conduct;
That the agreements or conduct of the respondent has caused or is likely to causeinjury to consumers; and
That the respondent has been able to cause or will be able to cause the injury primarily because the transactions involved are credit transactions.
(3) In applying this section, consideration shall be given to each of the following factors, among others:
Whether the creditor should have reasonably believed at the time consumer credittransactions were made that, according to the credit terms or schedule of payments, there was no reasonable probability of payment in full of the obligation by the consumer;
Whether the creditor reasonably should have known, at the time of the transaction, ofthe inability of the consumer to receive substantial benefits from the transaction;
Gross disparity between the price of the transaction and its value measured by theprice at which similar transactions are readily obtainable by like consumers;
The fact that the creditor contracted for or received separate charges for insurancewith respect to consumer credit transactions with the effect of making the transactions, considered as a whole, unconscionable;
The fact that the respondent has knowingly taken advantage of the inability of theconsumer reasonably to protect his or her interests by reason of physical or mental infirmities, ignorance, illiteracy, or inability to understand the language of the agreement, or similar factors; and
Any of the factors set forth in section 5-5-109 (4).
(4) The administrator may bring a civil action to restrain a creditor or a person acting in the creditor's behalf from engaging in a course of making or arranging consumer loans to enable consumers to buy or lease from a particular seller or lessor goods or services, a principal purpose of which course of action is to avoid giving the consumers those rights that they would have had if the transactions were entered into as a consumer credit sale if:
The lender is a person related to the seller or lessor unless the relationship is remoteor is not a factor in the transaction;
The seller or lessor guarantees the loans or otherwise assumes the risk of loss by thelender upon the loans;
The loans are conditioned upon the consumer's purchase or lease of the goods orservices from the particular seller or lessor, but the lender's payment of proceeds of the loan to the seller or lessor does not in itself establish that the loan was so conditioned; or
The lender, before the lender makes the consumer loan, has knowledge or, from thelender's course of dealing with the particular seller or lessor or from the lender's records, notice of substantial complaints by other consumers of the particular seller's or lessor's failure or refusal to perform his or her contracts with them and of the particular seller's or lessor's failure to remedy his or her defaults within a reasonable time after notice to him or her of the complaints.
(5) In an action brought pursuant to this code, a charge or practice expressly permitted by this code is not in itself unconscionable.
Source: L. 2000: Entire article R&RE, p. 1248, § 1, effective July 1.
Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 5-6-111, as it existed prior to 2000.