Courthouse News reports: After passing some of the strictest legislation in the nation regulating soda and other sugary drinks, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously voted to repeal a ban on soft drink ads on city property. Days after the board passed the trio of laws in June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck […]
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
Yesterday, the National Restaurant Association announced plans to file a lawsuit against New York City's health department over its requirement that chain restaurants post warning labels on foods that contain more than the recommended daily limit for sodium. The rule takes effect today. It requires chain restaurants with 15 or more locations in New York […]
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation press release: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a complaint today with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Google for collecting and data mining school children’s personal information, including their Internet searches—a practice EFF uncovered while researching its “Spying on Students” campaign, which launched today. The campaign was created to […]
The Wall Street Journal reports on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's consideration of a rule requiring lenders to provide detailed data on loan applications, in an effort to prevent discrimination against small businesses and businesses owned by women and minorities. "To do that, the agency would require lenders to provide detailed data on loan applications, […]
Politico reports: The FCC has announced a series of eye-popping fines against companies over the past two years: Roughly $100 million against nearly a dozen firms for defrauding a phone subsidy program, $35 million against a Chinese company for selling illegal wireless jamming equipment, and $100 million against AT&T this June for throttling customers on […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today posted its current rulemaking agenda. Its "current initiatives" address arbitration; payday, auto title, and similar lending products; pre-paid accounts; overdraft; debt collection; larger participants and non-depository lender registration; Women-owned, minority-owned, and small businesses data collection; mortgage servicing; and implementation of various mortgage rules. The CFPB announcement has a summary. […]
The Federal Trade Commission has approved final amendments to its Telemarketing Sales Rule, including a change that will help protect consumers from fraud by prohibiting four discrete types of payment methods favored by con artists and scammers. The rule changes will stop telemarketers from dipping directly into consumer bank accounts by using certain kinds of […]
A bill that would limit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s 2013 auto lending guidance passed the House of Representatives late Wednesday. Automotive News explains that "H.R. 1737 — the Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act — would revoke 2013 auto lending guidance from the CFPB. The guidance suggests lenders should either impose limits on […]
The Department of Justice has announced: As part of a nationwide sweep, the Department of Justice and its federal partners have pursued civil and criminal cases against more than 100 makers and marketers of dietary supplements. The actions discussed today resulted from a year-long effort, beginning in November 2014, to focus enforcement resources in an […]
Forbes reports: The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that litigation-finance contracts — non-recourse loans to consumers that are repayable only if they win their case — are indeed loans under that state’s consumer finance laws, making it harder for high-interest lawsuit lenders to operate in the state. The decision [yesterday] by Colorado’s highest court upholds […]