Author Archives: Allison Zieve

White House moves against forced arbitration clauses in employment contracts

AP is reporting: "President Barack Obama is preparing to sign an executive order cracking down on labor violations by companies that contract with the federal government  …. In a bid to allow potential victims to have their day in court, the president's order will also prohibit companies pursuing government contracts from requiring their workers to […]

Court of Appeals upholds USDA country-of-origin labeling for meats

In 2002 and again in 2008, Congress enacted legislation requiring country-of-origin labeling (COOL) on certain foods, including meats. The 2008 statute defines country of origin as meaning, at least, where the animal has been born, raised, and slaughtered—the three major production steps. After the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a regulation to implement the […]

Three States Sue 5-Hour Energy Makers For Deceptive Ads

From Food Safety News: Oregon, Washington and Vermont have filed lawsuits against the makers of the energy drink 5-Hour Energy for making “deceptive” marketing claims. More states are expected to follow. …. The suits take issue with claims about what 5-Hour Energy actually does, whether consumers experience a “crash,” whether it’s recommended by doctors and […]

Seventh Circuit decison in Fair Credit Reporting Act case

Several years ago, an attorney named James Bormes paid a case filing fee via pay.gov, which the federal courts use to facilitate electronic payments. He received an email receipt that included both the last four digits of his credit card’s number and the card’s expiration date. Bormes sued seeking damages under the Fair Credit Reporting […]

CFPB proposes adding narratives to complaint database

The CFPB’s Consumer Complaint Database is a publicly accessible, online database of consumer financial complaints. It includes anonymous information about the complaints received, including the date of submission, the consumer’s zip code, the relevant company, the product type, the issue the consumer is complaining about, and the company’s response. Although when a consumer enters information […]

House Hearing on Operation Choke Point

In March 2013, the Department of Justice revealed that it was working with banking regulators to prevent fraudsters from accessing consumer bank accounts by choking off their access to electronic payments. DOJ calls the program "Operation Choke Point." See prior blog posts here and here. The Operation has come under attack from Republicans in Congress […]

CFPB takes action against lender for “pushing payday borrowers into a cycle of debt”

From the CFPB's news release: Today [July 10], the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took enforcement action against ACE Cash Express, one of the largest payday lenders in the United States, for pushing payday borrowers into a cycle of debt. The CFPB found that ACE used illegal debt collection tactics – including harassment and false […]

FTC sues Amazon for charges incurred through kids’ apps

From the FTC’s press release: Amazon.com, Inc. has billed parents and other account holders for millions of dollars in unauthorized in-app charges incurred by children, according to a Federal Trade Commission complaint filed today [July 10] in federal court. The FTC’s lawsuit seeks a court order requiring refunds to consumers for the unauthorized charges and […]

EPIC complains to FTC about Facebook’s “emotional contagion” study

The June 17 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) included an article on an “emotional contagion” study conducted for Facebook. For the study, researchers randomly chose more than 680,000 Facebook users and altered their news feeds so that some saw fewer positive posts and others saw fewer negative posts. […]

On proposed changes to the federal rules of civil procedure

Arthur Bryant of Public Justice has this post, entitled Access to Justice At Stake with Federal Rules Changes, about “the critical importance of the Federal Rules process” and the importance of fair rules to ensure access to the civil justice system. [Note, 6/5/14 – The link is not currently working. Seems to be a problem […]