"Given the many billions of dollars financial companies have paid in regulatory and legal settlements related to the mortgage crisis, how much money has actually found its way into the pockets of investors harmed by their actions? "Less than you may think." That's the start of a New York Times article entitled "Victims of Financial […]
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
From the New York Times this morning: An agreement announced Monday by the New York State attorney general and GNC, the nation’s largest specialty retailer of dietary supplements, should provide protection against fraudulent herbal products that don’t contain the ingredients listed on their labels or contain unlisted ingredients that are potentially dangerous. Under the deal, […]
From an EarthJustice press release issued this morning: Today, a broad coalition of health, firefighter, consumer and science groups filed a petition asking the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to ban four categories of consumer products—children’s products, furniture, mattresses and the casings around electronics—if they contain any flame retardant in the chemical class known as […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday announced that has initiated enforcement action against a nationwide debt collector National Corrective Group and its chief executive officer for using deceptive threats of criminal prosecution and jail time to intimidate consumers into paying debts for bounced checks. The company also misled consumers into believing that they must enroll in […]
Two editorials yesterday about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal to regulate payday lenders. (Our post about the proposal, with a link to it, is here.) A New York Times editorial gives strong support for the proposed rule: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took the most important step in its brief four-year history this week when […]
The Huffington Post reports today: Facing the prospect of imminent oversight by a newly created government regulator, the much-reviled payday loan industry’s lobbying machine surged into action. The campaign to blunt the power of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau included the usual monetary contributions to key lawmakers and hiring of well-connected lobbyists. But one little-known […]
The New York Times reports today on financial companies' use of forced arbitration provisions to eliminate servicemembers' rights. Over the years, Congress has given service members a number of protections — some dating to the Civil War — from repossessions and foreclosures. Efforts to maintain that special status for service members has run into resistance […]
Fair Warning reports today on online website selling used cars by matching buyers with car owners. Claiming not to be car "dealers," the sites do not necessarily comply with consumer protection rules that apply to traditional used car dealers. Read "Used Car Startups Do a Wheelie Around Consumer Protection Rules." Used Car Startups Do a […]
"Since 2005, student borrowers have been unable to discharge their private student loans through the process of bankruptcy. But that could soon change after a group of [13] senators introduced a bill aimed at addressing the current student debt crisis by restoring the bankruptcy code to hold private student loans in the same regard as other private […]
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports: The Food and Drug Administration is again warning consumers of dangerous weight loss supplements that contain pharmaceutical drugs, including the weight loss drug Meridia, which was pulled from the market in 2010 for safety reasons. Four of the five weight loss supplements — Black Mamba Hyperrush, Diablos ECA Fir Caps, […]