Bench & Bar September/October 2026

FEATURE: LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

STRENGTHENING CONSUMER PROTECTION: THE KENTUCKY ATTORNEY GENERAL AND THE 2026 LEGISLATIVE SESSION BY CHRIS LEWIS, JOHN GHAELIAN, AND JORDAN HASENBALG

F or more than 50 years, the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act (“KCPA”) has served as the Commonwealth’s primary statutory tool for protecting con sumers from deceptive and unfair business practices. 1 Enacted in 1972 and modeled in part on Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, KCPA establishes a broad prohibition on unfair, false, misleading, or deceptive acts or practices in trade or com merce, and vests the Attorney General with primary responsibility for enforcing those protections on behalf of the public. 2 Throughout KCPA’s history, Kentucky Attorneys General have relied on the law to challenge deceptive advertising, unlawful sales practices, and other unfair business practices across a wide range of indus tries, including automobile dealerships, 3 cemeteries, 4 moving companies, 5 opioid manufacturers and distributors, 6 and, more recently, social media platforms. 7 KCPA’s durability lies in its flexibility. Rather than attempting to catalog every prohibited

business practice, the General Assembly adopted a broadly worded statute capable of adapting to evolving markets and new forms of consumer harm. Kentucky appel late courts have consistently reinforced that design, recognizing the Act’s remedial pur pose and construing its provisions liberally to protect consumers. 8 As commerce has changed, so has the statutory framework surrounding KCPA. While KCPA remains the Commonwealth’s baseline prohibition against unfair and deceptive practices, the General Assem bly has supplemented it with targeted statutes addressing industries or practices presenting heightened risks to consumers, including cremation services, 9 telephonic solicitations, 10 and charitable solicitations. 11 The result is a layered consumer protection framework in which KCPA serves as the foundation and more specialized statutes provide additional protections where the General Assembly has determined height ened regulatory oversight is warranted.

The 2026 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly continued this evolution. House Bill 869 strengthened one of KCPA’s principal enforcement mechanisms by clarifying the assessment of civil penalties for repeated violations, while Senate Bill 153, House Bill 568, and House Bill 692 extended Kentucky’s consumer protection framework into disaster recovery services, public adjuster services, and digital privacy. Although these enactments regulate dif ferent sectors of the economy, they reflect a common legislative judgment: KCPA remains the Commonwealth’s founda tional consumer protection statute, but broad prohibitions on unfair and deceptive practices are most effective when comple mented by targeted regulation addressing industries that present heightened risks to consumers. This article examines how these enactments reinforce KCPA’s role as the foundation of Kentucky’s consumer protection framework, while illustrating the General Assembly’s continuing reliance on layered Attorney General-led enforcement to address evolving consumer protection challenges.

14 september/october 2026