The Federal Communications Commission announced a $2.96 million fine against Travel Club Marketing, Inc., related companies, and the companies’ owner, for making at least 185 unsolicited robocalls. The calls were prerecorded advertising calls to consumers who had not consented to the robocalls; the majority of the consumers had listed their telephone number on the national […]
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
The Federal Trade Commission announced today: The Federal Trade Commission has charged a data broker operation with illegally selling payday loan applicants’ financial information to a scam operation that took millions of dollars from consumers by debiting their bank accounts and charging their credit cards without their consent. According to the FTC’s complaint, the data […]
A federal judge on Friday struck down New York City’s Responsible Banking Act, holding the city preempted by state and federal banking laws. The ordinance required deposit banks to disclose information about how the banks serve low-income neighborhoods. Under the ordinance, the information would be published and factor into whether banks would remain eligible to hold […]
The Wall Street Journal reports: The Federal Trade Commission in its 100-year history has never agreed on formal principles for policing companies engaged in “unfair” competition. That looks set to change. Members of the FTC are close to a bipartisan agreement to lay out for the first time how the commission views its authority to […]
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday weighed in on the “unsettled” question whether a district court should stay a case or dismiss it, when it grants a motion to compel arbitration. The court held that the case should be stayed. The opening paragraph summarizes the issue and the reasoning: In an effort to more […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau acted yesterday against Paymap Inc. and LoanCare, LLC for deceiving consumers with advertisements for a mortgage payment program that promised tens of thousands of dollars in interest savings from more frequent mortgage payments. Under the terms of the orders, Paymap will return $33.4 million in fees to consumers and pay […]
The judge rejected a motion for a broad protective order but issued a narrower one. Reuters reports: A federal judge overseeing litigation over multiple General Motors recalls last year will allow plaintiffs' lawyers to share some nonconfidential material gathered during discovery, rejecting the company's bid to broadly ban public pretrial dissemination of the material. On […]
The Federal Trade Commission announced: Medicare Card Scheme Took Money from Seniors’ Bank Accounts A group of scammers who falsely promised consumers new Medicare cards in order to obtain their bank account numbers and debit their accounts will be banned from selling healthcare-related products and services under settlements with the Federal Trade Commission. The settlements […]
The Wall Street Journal explains: Time and again, consumer ads claim a medicine is the number one drug prescribed by physicians. Putting aside the question of whether such boasting is actually true, what remains unclear is the extent to which consumers view such information positively or as a substitute for effectiveness data. And so, the […]
From the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's press release: Discover’s Illegal Servicing Practices Affected Private Student Loan Borrowers Transferred from Citibank Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took action against Discover Bank and its affiliates for illegal private student loan servicing practices. The CFPB found that Discover overstated the minimum amounts due on billing statements […]