The Department of Transportation and 18 states on April 16 agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that delegates more authority to and streamlines the process for state attorneys general to investigate consumer complaints against airlines.
In 1978, when President Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act into law, the new statute preempted state consumer protection authority, leaving it as the sole province of the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to investigate and penalize unfair or deceptive acts or practices (UDAP) in commercial passenger aviation.
As California’s attorney general and then as a US senator, Kamala Harris argued that states should not be preempted—that they should be able to exercise their authority under state law. Now, as vice president and with the assistance of the secretary of the DOT, her request has partially been granted.
Now that the MOU is in effect, we anticipate that signatory attorneys general will move expeditiously to identify complaints and initiate investigations leading to inquiries for carriers. To start, this will likely mean letter inquiries, which could result in misrouting for businesses that have not historically interacted with the attorneys general.
The MOU contains four key features:
All US passenger commercial air carriers and non-US passenger commercial air carriers that transport passengers to or from the United States now largely face the same dual enforcement scheme that most businesses in the United States do—a primary federal agency and numerous state enforcement officials. While only DOT has direct enforcement authority, differing approaches to consumer protection by attorneys general and the resources they gain will mean more investigations and possibly more prosecutions. Moreover, if an attorney general recommends action and none is taken, it will put “soft” pressure on the federal agency to act.
Carriers should:
State |
Attorney General |
Party Affiliation |
Remarks |
CA |
Rob Bonta |
D |
2026 |
CO |
Phil Weiser |
D |
Leader – 2026 |
CT |
William Tong |
D |
2026 |
DC |
Brian Schwalb |
D |
2026 |
IL |
Kwame Raoul |
D |
2026 |
MD |
Anthony Brown |
D |
2026 |
ME |
Aaron Frey |
D |
2024 |
MI |
Dana Nessel |
D |
2026 |
NC |
Josh Stein |
D |
Open seat 2024 |
NH |
John Formella |
R |
Apptd – 2025 |
Northern Mariana Islands |
Edward Manibusan |
D |
|
NV |
Aaron Ford |
D |
2026 |
NY |
Letitia James |
D |
2026 |
OK |
Gentner Drummond |
R |
2026 |
PA |
Michelle Henry |
D |
Open seat 2025 |
RI |
Peter Neronha |
D |
2026 |
Virgin Islands |
Ariel Smith |
|
|
WI |
Josh Kaul |
D |
2026 |
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