The Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday that it obtained a temporary restraining order halting an operation that bilked consumers out of millions of dollars by pretending to be affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education and falsely promising student loan debt relief. The FTC's press release, with a links to its complaint, is here.
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
In 2006, Congress enacted the Military Lending Act, which protects active duty troops by capping interest rates at 36% and provides other safeguards. Now, some members of Congress want to expand those safeguards to protect everyone from high-interest paydays loans with interest rates as high as 200%. NPR has the story, here.
Yesterday, the FTC released guide setting forth rules for when and how online influencers should disclose sponsorships to their followers. The guide is here.
AT&T Mobility and the FTC have settled a case charging that the company misled millions of its smartphone customers by charging them for “unlimited” data plans while reducing their data speeds. FTC filed the case in 2014, alleged that AT&T failed to adequately disclose to its unlimited data plan customers that, if they reach a […]
New York Times journalist Kashmir Hill explains that little-known companies are amassing your data — like food orders and Airbnb messages — and selling the analysis to clients. She also shares information about how to request a copy of the information that these companies have collected about you. The article is here.
More than 20 Democratic senators called on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to investigate a loan servicer Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency’s handling of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program for public service workers. According to recent reports, 99 percent of applicants have been denied loan forgiveness. A 2017 report by the CFPB’s student loan […]
A federal judge has held Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in contempt for violating an order to stop collecting loan payments from former Corinthian Colleges students.The judge imposed a $100,000 fine on the Education Department for violating a preliminary injunction; the money will be used to compensate the 16,000 people harmed by the federal agency’s actions. […]
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that arbitrators have an obligation to disclose their financial interests in the cases before them. In a 2-1 decision in Monster Energy v. City Beverages, the court vacated a $3 million JAMS arbitration award, holding the award cannot stand because a purportedly neutral JAMS arbitrator failed […]
The Wall Street Journal reports that a “senior student-loan official in the Trump administration said he would resign Thursday and endorse canceling most of the nation’s outstanding student debt, calling the student-loan system ‘fundamentally broken.'” “Wayne Johnson was appointed in 2017 by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as chief operating officer of the Office of Federal […]
The Federal Trade Commission today charged the developer of three "stalking" apps with violating consumer's privacy and creating security vulnerabilities. The apps allowed purchasers to monitor a user's GPS location, text messages, and photos without the knowledge of the user. The FTC's complaint was announced concurrently with a consent order under which Retina X Studios […]