About a year ago, we posted about the electric-car company Tesla, which wants to sell cars directly from its stores to consumers, and efforts by car dealers to interfere with Tesla's business model on, you guessed it, consumer-protection grounds. Our earlier post dealt in particular with Tesla's difficulties selling its cars in New Jersey. Now, […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
As many of our readers know, as required by the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is conducting a study of arbitration as a dispute-resolution mechanism for matters with the Bureau's regulatory reach. After the study, the CFPB is authorized to take regulatory action consistent with its study's results. (We addressed the […]
Though the definition varies (go here), a patent troll generally is thought of as a person or entity that buys patents and then enforces the patents through litigation against accused infringers to collect licensing fees. The troll has no intent to exploit the patent for itself — that is, no plan to use the patent […]
Law professors Anthony Casey and Eric Posner attempt to answer that question in A Framework for Bailout Regulation. Here is the abstract: During the height of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, the government bailed out numerous corporations, including banks, investment banks, and automobile manufacturers. While the bailouts helped end the financial crisis, they […]
That's the title of this article by law professor Einer Elhauge. Here's his to-the-point abstract: The recent US Supreme Court decision in American Express v. Italian Colors Restaurant threatens to gut private antitrust enforcement in the United States by replacing it with ineffective forms of arbitration. The Court's logic that the right to pursue a […]
Last year, 16 car manufacturers responded to questions from Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.), pictured to the right, concerning whether their vehicles are vulnerable to hackers and how the companies collect and protect driver information. Senator Markey's office has now reviewed the information received from the manufacturers and issued this report. Here's Senator Markey's synopsis of […]
To quote the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's press release: [T]he Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Department of Education announced more than $480 million in forgiveness for borrowers who took out Corinthian College’s high-cost private student loans. ECMC Group, the new owner of a number of Corinthian schools, will not operate a private student […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has this on-line interactive tool for estimating what a consumer should pay for a home mortgage. Plug in loan type, amount, length, down payment, FICO credit score, location, etc., and the tool spits out the approximate market interest rate in the relevant location and the total cost of credit. The […]
That's the title of this article by Anahad O'Connor. Here's an excerpt: Companies are increasingly adding vitamins and minerals to juices, sports drinks and bottled water, responding to a growing consumer demand for these products. Even though the amounts of added nutrients in these drinks are typically small, some nutrition scientists are concerned that through […]
King v. Burwell is the case currently before the Supreme Court that asks whether the Affordable Care Act (ACA) authorizes health-care insurance subsidies for all otherwise qualified people nationwide or only for people who live in states that run their own health care "exchanges." Exchanges are ACA-defined marketplaces in which people buy health insurance. Under […]