In a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Massachusetts Secretary William Galvin is asking the SEC to consider a ban on binding pre-dispute arbitration clauses in investor advisor contracts, citing a survey that found them prevalent in contracts between investment advisers and their clients. In the alternative, Galvin asks that the SEC undertake […]
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
We have blogged several times (here, here, here, here, and here) about the Federal Trade Commission's challenges to "pay-to-delay" settlements between brand-name and generic drug companies, in which the brand-name company pays the generic to delay selling a generic equivalent of the brand-name drug. The Legal Times reports that the new chair of the Senate's […]
Journalist and consumer advocate Christopher Elliott has this article in Sunday's Washington Post about the high cost of using a credit card to charge a call on a public pay phone. According to the article, the posted rate applies only to coin payment, and the rate for credit card calls is typically not posted at […]
The Federal Trade Commission yesterday announced the results of an empirical study of companies that are in the business of buying consumer debts and trying to collect on them. The study looked at more than 5,000 portfolios containing nearly 90 million consumer accounts with a face value of $143 billion. In its report, The Structure […]
Michigan State University College of Law Professor Mark Totten has written Credit Reform and the States: The Vital Role of Attorneys General after Dodd-Frank. Here is the abstract: Congress employed multiple strategies in the wake of the Great Recession to provide greater protections for consumers in the financial marketplace. One strategy aimed at agency design […]
The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit held this morning that the Constitution permits “recess appointments” only during the Recess between Sessions of Congress and only for positions that become vacant during the Recess. The opinion conflicts with a 2004 decision of the Eleventh Circuit. The DC case arises from a challenge to […]
Alabama-based bank Regions Financial Corp. has agreed to stop offering payday loans in North Carolina. Although North Carolina has banned payday loan shops or Internet services, federal law allows a bank to make those loans if allowed in the bank’s home state. This article from the Charlotte Post has the details. Payday loans are made […]
For several years, the Federal Trade Commission has challenged under the antitrust laws so-called “reverse-payment” or “pay-to-delay” settlements. In such a settlement, a brand-name drug company pays a generic-drug company not to sell a generic equivalent of a drug, thus allowing the brand-name to maintain an exclusive market at a high price for years […]
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled on Friday in Wyeth v. Weeks that a patient who took a generic version of a drug may sue a brand-name drug manufacturer for failing to warn about a drug’s risks. In June 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Pliva v. Mensing that injured patients' state-law failure-to-warn claims against […]
The FTC announced this morning that it has settled charges it brought against related companies that allegedly peddled fake mortgage assistance relief to financially distressed Spanish-speaking homeowners in the U.S. In July 2012, the FTC filed a complaint alleging that the defendants, operating from the Dominican Republic, with violating the FTC Act and the Mortgage […]