The Federal Trade Commission and seven state attorney general offices announced a lawsuit against Ticketmaster.The FTC along with Virginia, Utah, Florida, Tennessee, Nebraska, Illinois and Colorado, sued Ticketmaster for violating the FTC Act and the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, a law created to stop attempts to automate the process of purchasing tickets en masse […]
Author Archives: Christine Hines
The Securities and Exchange Commission this week said that it would allow corporations filing registration statements to use predispute arbitration clauses for investor claims. In its policy statement, the SEC said that “the presence of an issuer-investor mandatory arbitration provision will not impact decisions whether to accelerate the effectiveness of a registration statement under the […]
The National Association of Attorneys General sent a letter Monday to Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Open AI, and other AI companies, warning that state AGs would enforce their respective laws to protect children against illicit AI practices. The letter, signed by 44 jurisdictions, highlighted the recent news that Meta had approved the use of “AI […]
The Federal Trade Commission this week sued fitness operators Fitness International LLC and Fitness & Sports Clubs, LLC for using cancellation procedures that made it difficult for consumers to unsubscribe from their monthly memberships. The complaint alleges that the gyms’ practices have incurred hundreds of millions of dollars in unwanted recurring charges. According to the […]
A Texas district court, in response to a joint request from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and trade industry associations, just vacated the bureau’s own rule that had prohibited most medical debt on credit reports. The Biden-era CFPB finalized a rule in January to ban medical bills on credit reports and to prohibit lenders from […]
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday nullified the Federal Trade Commission’s Click-to-Cancel rule. The rule addressed unfair and deceptive practices in subscriptions (or negative options marketing). The FTC aimed to remove misrepresentations in subscription practices and to generally make canceling subscriptions as easy as it is to sign up for them. In reversing the […]
Consumer Federation of America just released its annual report of consumer complaints submitted to state and local agencies. Auto sales and auto repair issues tops the list for the ninth year in a row, the report said. The Top Ten1. Auto Sales and Repair2. Retail Purchase Issues3. Home Improvement4. Consumer Credit5. Landlord/Tenant Issues6. Frauds and […]
The arbitration firm JAMS posted a piece this week recognizing the 100th anniversary of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). Indeed, Congress passed the FAA in Feb. 1925 to facilitate resolution of business to business disputes, validating the ability of commercial parties of relatively equal bargaining power to agree in their contracts to resolve their disputes […]
The Federal Trade Commission this week began work to enforce its new rule on unfair and deceptive fees. The Commission sent a warning letter to ticket reseller StubHub alleging that the company may have already violated the rule which went into effect May 12. The rule, which specifically applies to live-event ticketing and short-term lodging, […]
The National Fair Housing Alliance, joined by fair housing, civil rights, and consumer protection organizations, filed an amicus brief last Friday in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Townstone, an enforcement action that the bureau previously had successfully settled but that it now seeks to reverse in favor of the corporate defendant. In the original case, […]