If items are always on sale, are they really on sale at all? This is the question underlying the plaintiff’s claim in Hennessey v. The Gap, a case in which an Eighth Circuit decision issued yesterday, affirming the dismissal of a consumer class action. The named plaintiff sued the Gap and Old Navy, alleging that sale […]
Author Archives: Adam Pulver
Corporate defendants have long pretended that their interests in mandatory, individual arbitration clauses are directed at the fact that arbitration provides an efficient, adequate forum for consumers to vindicate their claims for relief– not in effectively blocking consumers from obtaining any meaningful relief. As more and more plaintiffs have been taking such defendants at their […]
The Fair Credit Reporting Act provides that consumers that establish a consumer reporting agency has willfully failed to comply with the statute’s requirement may recover either (1) their actual damages, or (2) “damages of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000.” In Santos v. Healthcare Revenue Recovery Group, LLC, Experian argued that, in order […]
In March, as a result of a lawsuit brought by the California Reinvestment Coalition, the CFPB finalized a rule under Section 1071 of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, requiring lenders to collect and report information about small business credit applications. Today, by a vote of 53-44, the Senate voted to invalidate the measure under the […]
Jamie Huber brought a putative class action under the FDCPA, alleging that confusing collection letters she received from Simon’s Agency, Inc. were misleading and deceptive. A district court certified a class, and granted summary judgment in its favor. In so doing, it found that Ms. Huber had standing based on an informational injury, and that […]
When a consumer finds an error on his or her credit report, the FCRA provides two mechanisms for raising a dispute. The consumer can raise a “direct” dispute with the person or entity that furnished the incorrect or incomplete information (the “furnisher”), or an “indirect” dispute with the credit reporting agency, which then must provide […]
Today, the FTC, along with 17 state attorneys general, sued Amazon in the Western District of Washington, arguing that it “is a monopolist that uses a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power.” The lawsuit alleges anticompetitive conduct both in the consumer-facing market, and in the services Amazon offers […]
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 […]
The CFPB today issued a report finding that “payment plans” offered by various postsecondary schools can carry risks to students, as they often include high fees, confusing and inconsistent disclosures, forced arbitration agreements, and snowballing interest. The Bureau also found that the third-party service providers schools partner with can engage in abusive debt collection practices. […]
In a decision today, the DC Circuit vacated the CPSC’s safety standard for the operating cords on custom-made window coverings. Based on a finding that such cords pose a strangulation risk to young children, the rule, in the DC Circuit’s words, “essentially prohibit[ed] corded window products,” and the CPSC “set an aggressive timeline for industry […]