assurance of voluntary compliance

In American law, an assurance of voluntary compliance is a legal device entered into between a state attorney general and an individual or business that the attorney general believes has or may in the future violate a consumer protection law.{{cite journal|last=Zimmering|first=Paul|title=Louisiana's Consumer Protection Law--Three Years of Operation|journal=Tulane Law Review|date=January 1976}} An assurance is not an admission of guilt.{{cite web|title=Glossary of Closing Descriptions and Useful Legal Terms|url=https://justice.oregon.gov/complaints/glossary.htm|publisher=State of Oregon Department of Justice|accessdate=22 April 2013}} Although parties voluntarily enter into assurances, when violated they have the same force of law as "any injunction, judgment [or] final court order".{{cite journal|last=Evans|first=Matthew|author2=John Elder|title=Who?: When?: Where?: What?: How?: An update on the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act|journal=Tennessee Bar Journal|date=February 2006}}