This week, the Senate advanced the GENIUS Act, which would establish a (too-weak) regulatory framework for “stablecoins” and other digital currency. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley has proposed an amendment to that bill which would prohibit credit card interest rates above 10%. The banking industry is not pleased.
Author Archives: Adam Pulver
On May 8 and 9, President Trump attempted to fire the three Democratic members of the Consumer Protection Safety Commission. Today, represented by my colleagues at Public Citizen, those commissioners filed suit asking that the purported terminations be set aside. The press release is available at https://www.citizen.org/news/trump-firing-consumer-product-safety-commissioners-was-unlawful/ and the complaint is available at https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/ECF-1-Complaint-3.pdf.
The FTC currently has only three commissioners, all of whom are Republicans. There has been significant concern that the remaining commissioners will take a lax view as to both the agency’s rulemaking and enforcement authority. Nonetheless, today the Commission, with only 2 Commissioners participating due to a recusal, announced the filing of a complaint against […]
In an opinion issued today, the en banc Ninth Circuit held that Shopify, an e-commerce platform, could be sued in California based on allegations that it had installed tracking software on a California consumer’s device. The court concluded that personal jurisdiction could be exercised constitutionally, as Shopify’s conduct was expressly aimed “at California through its extraction, maintenance, […]
DOJ has announced the launch of an “Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force to advocate for the elimination of anticompetitive state and federal laws and regulations that undermine free market competition and harm consumers, workers, and businesses,” lead by the DOJ Antitrust Division. The task force is asking members of the public to submit comments as to […]
In 2022, in Ewing v. Med-1 Solutions, LLC, the Seventh Circuit held that a consumer is harmed by a credit report’s failure to note that a given debt is dispute–finding that it impacted the consumer’s creditworthiness and impacted their reputation, and thus that a consumer has standing to pursue a claim based on a debt […]
At the end of February, the Ninth Circuit issued its decision in Six v. IQ Data International, where it reversed a district court’s dismissal of an FDCPA claim for lack of standing. The plaintiff’s claim was based on a violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(a)(2), which prohibits a debt collector from directly communicating with a […]
According to a Wall Street Journal article, recently confirmed OMB Chief has been named Acting Director of the CFPB, succeeding Treasury Secretary Bessent who had previously been designated to fill the role.- an ominous sign of things to come.
As the federal government as we know it is eliminated, it is good to see a positive pro-consumer opinion out of the Eleventh Circuit today. In Booze v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, the Court of Appeals considered a question that had divided district courts–whether the FDCPA prohibits loan servicers from collecting “pay-to-pay” or “convenience” fees for the […]
As Jeff noted, Treasury Secretary Bessent is now serving as Acting Director of the CFPB. Bloomberg Law reports he has directed Bureau staff to “stop all rulemaking, communications, litigation, and other activities” unless required by law. The Fifth Circuit was scheduled to hear arguments today on industry’s wide-ranging challenge to the agency’s regulation of credit […]