Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Trump names Brian Johnson to lead CFPB

American Banker’s Kate Berry has the story here. Johnson served as former CFPB director Kathy Kraninger’s second-in-command during the first Trump administration. It remains to be seen whether he is more like Vought or Kraninger or goes in a different direction but I can’t say I’m optimistic.

Interview with former CFPB Policy Fellow Amelia O’Rourke-Owens

At Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Finance Monitor podcast. From the episode description: Amelia advances a bold thesis in her article: that consumer protection law, and particularly consumer financial protection law, may be the most impactful body of law in the United States. She further argues that the strength of consumer protection laws may serve as a […]

Is Amazon’s subscribe and save feature a bait and switch?

Regular Amazon users probably know that if they agree to subscribe to certain products and receive deliveries at regular intervals, Amazon charges less than if they buy the items one at a time. But now some plaintiffs have brought a would-be class action in which they claim that Amazon raises the price after someone subscribes, […]

Mourning Barney Frank

Barney Frank, whose name graces the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the CFPB and enacted multiple consumer protections, has died at the age of 86. As long as the CFPB protects consumers (it will rise again!), the CFPB and the Consumer Financial Protection Act stand as a memorial to Frank’s important work to protect Americans.

Ellengold & Laing article on the use of government to collect private debts

Kate Elengold of UNC and Sophie Laing Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Inc. have written Offsetting Justice: Using Government Power To Collect Private Debts, 175 Penn. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2027). Here’s the abstract: Private creditors regularly hire third-party debt collectors to recoup debt on their behalf by contacting, coercing, and suing consumer debtors. Scholars, advocates, and policymakers […]