[co-author: Shelby Lomax]
This month, a Florida appellate court held that a merchant cash advance (MCA) purchase and sale agreement was not a “disguised loan” and, therefore, was not subject to Florida’s criminal usury statute. MCA purchase and sale agreements, which offer merchants a fast and efficient way to obtain funding for their operations, are not loans. Rather, these agreements constitute the purchase of a merchant’s future receipts by the MCA company. However, some merchants have claimed that MCAs are “disguised loans” subject to their respective states’ usury law. While several states have well-developed case law differentiating loans from the purchase and sale of receivables, Florida suffers from a relative lack of authority on the issue. Fortunately, in