Higbee Threatens Copyright Enforcement of Stale Claims (and Other Turns for the Worse)

Over the past few years, since I started to pay attention to copyright infringement demand letters  sent by the law firm of Mathew Higbee, and after we filed a few declaratory judgment actions on behalf of discussion forums whose users had posted images or inline links to images, I thought I had perceived an improvement […]

Tax Preparation Companies Receive FTC’s “Penalty Offenses” Warning

The FTC’s Penalty Offenses authority seems good for consumers and businesses. It allows the FTC to warn businesses about specific practices that would constitute unfair and deceptive conduct under its statute, the FTC Act, with the threat of punishing penalties if they nevertheless engaged in the conduct. This warning ideally deters the misconduct and eliminates […]

DC court rejects insurers’ challenge to HUD disparate impact rules

Ten years after the case was first filed, after intervening regulatory flip-flops and the Supreme Court’s decision in Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, a D.C. district judge granted summary judgment to HUD yesterday in a challenge to its disparate-impact regulations brought by insurers. Limiting its analysis to the question […]

Court enjoins California’s data-collection law

A federal judge has granted a request to block the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA), a law that requires special data safeguards for underage users online. In a ruling, issued yesterday, the judge granted a preliminary injunction for tech industry group NetChoice, saying the law likely violates the First Amendment.The Verge has the story, […]

CFPB guidance on credit denials by lenders using AI

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued guidance about certain legal requirements that lenders must adhere to when using artificial intelligence and other complex models. The agency explains: “The guidance describes how lenders must use specific and accurate reasons when taking adverse actions against consumers. This means that creditors cannot simply use CFPB sample adverse […]

FTC Can’t Refund Consumers in Deceptive Investment Scheme

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in AMG Capital Management v. FTC continues to hamper the Federal Trade Commission’s work, and the Commission rightly is shining a spotlight on it. In a recently announced enforcement action, the FTC lamented the AMG decision, which it said limited its ability to secure refunds for duped investors of […]

After consumer advocacy groups file petition with CFPB calling for new arbitration rule, CFPB says it will carefully consider the proposal, open a public docket and take comments from the public

Bloomberg Law’s Evan Weinberger has the story here (may be behind paywall), including a link to the petition. Weinberger later posted on what used to be called Twitter the CFPB’s response to his request for comment. The petition relies heavily on Roseanna Sommers’ study, which we discussed here.

Luke Herrine paper: Consumer Protection after Consumer Sovereignty

Luke Herrine of Alabama has written Consumer Protection after Consumer Sovereignty. Here’s the abstract: We seem to be in the middle of a paradigm shift in consumer protection. For decades, regulators understood their mission as “preserving choice” through more effective informational remedies. In the past decade — and more decisively during the Biden Administration — […]