The Equal Credit Opportunity Act bars discrimination in consumer lending on the basis of sex but does not explicitly apply to sexual orientation or gender identity, as some state laws do. Back in 2021, after the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County interpreting Title VII, the employment discrimination statute, to forbid such discrimination, […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Here. I guess it’s hard to write reports when you tell your staff to stand down. As might have been expected, it’s very critical of the Biden-Chopra CFPB, using words like shameful, overreach, and weaponization.
Regular readers of the blog will know that the Biden CFPB took the position that discrimination is unfair within the meaning of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, the CFPB’s UDAAP statute. After the Chamber of Commerce sued to block that interpretation and won before a Trump-nominated judge, the CFPB appealed. But before the appeal could be […]
Here. The piece says that eliminating the CFPB: * * * put[s] the agency at odds with the Trump administration’s favorite way to counter the souring mood on the economy: offering cold, hard cash (think of “warrior checks” for service members and “Trump accounts” for babies). As of October, the bureau has dropped 22 pending […]
Kaitlin Ainsworth Caruso of Maine has written Back to the Drawing Board? Overdraft fees, the Congressional Review Act, and the CFPB’s Path Back to Consumer Protection. Here’s the abstract: In late 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau adopted a rule aimed at a longtime pain point for consumers: high, sometimes unpredictable, overdraft fees. The CFPB […]
On November 17 at 3:00 Eastern, former Steiger Fellows will take questions about the Steiger fellowship, a paid summer fellowship on consumer law and antitrust in attorney general offices for rising 2Ls and 3Ls. To register, please go to ambar.org/steigerwebinar. Please tell interested students.
Nicholas R. Parrillo of Yale has written Administrative Law as a Choice of Business Strategy: Comparing the Industries Who Have Routinely Sued Their Regulators with the Industries Who Rarely Have. Here’s the abstract: For some large and powerful industries, it has long been normal and even routine for businesses to sue their federal regulator. For other […]
It’s titled Nickel and Dimed: How Payday Loan Apps Drain Workers’ Pay and How to Stop Them. Here’s CRL’s description: Payday loan apps are designed to be a debt trap – much like storefront payday loans. They both draw borrowers into a pattern of repeated borrowing and a succession of fees that pull from already-stretched paychecks, creating […]
Mark Bartholomew of SUNY Buffalo and Samuel Becher of Victoria University of Wellington have written The End of Shopping. Here’s the abstract: Self-acting “shopping agents” are no longer science fiction. Deployed by major platforms like Google, Amazon, and Walmart, AI systems are evolving from passive advisors to autonomous decision-makers capable of opening accounts, canceling subscriptions, and […]
Meirav Furth of Tel-Aviv University School of Law and NYU Law has written Discrimination in Contractual Performance : Theory, Evidence, and Preliminary Policy Prescriptions. Here’s the abstract This Article examines the often-overlooked practice of “selective performance” of standard form consumer contracts-where sellers permit employees to exercise discretion by waiving or modifying contractual terms to maintain customer […]