James C. Cooper and Joshua D. Wright, both of George Mason have written The Missing Role of Economics in FTC Privacy Policy, Cambridge Handbook of Consumer Privacy, Jules Polonetsky, Evan Selinger & Omer Tene, eds., Cambridge University Press (2017), Forthcoming. Here's the abstract: The FTC has been in the privacy game for almost twenty years. In […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Here. Here's the beginning and the end: President-elect Donald J. Trump will soon face a stark choice: whether to protect consumers, the ordinary Americans he pledged to defend against a system he criticized as rigged — or to side with that system. * * * If Mr. Trump chooses not to preserve a strong, […]
At SCOTUS blog. The headline: Justices appear divided over treatment of stale claims in consumer bankruptcies
Here. Excerpt: Schumer said Trump’s decision to “govern as a hard-right Republican” and possibly replace Cordray breaks his campaign promise to “drain the swamp” by fighting corporate interests on behalf of middle-class Americans. * * * The CFPB is currently finalizing rules on arbitration clauses, payday lending and debt collecting. Warren said the push to […]
Earlier today, in an American Bar Association Antitrust Section webinar chaired by Harvey Saferstein, and with panelists Deborah Goldstein, Center for Responsible Lending, and Daniel D. Sokol, Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law, Hofstra's Norman I. Silber delivered the remarks that appear below about the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Federal Communications […]
by Jeff Sovern Here (behind paywall). Excerpt: Exactly how President-elect Donald Trump intends to get rid of Cordray is unclear. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, Cordray can only be fired "for cause," and some speculate that the Trump administration is already building a case against the CFPB chief. One source with knowledge of the situation told […]
Here. Excerpt: Any effort to discharge Cordray would be illegal — and it might even precipitate something close to a constitutional crisis. * * * Both Republican and Democratic presidents have not loved the idea of independent agencies, operating outside of their daily control. But in 1935,[in the Humphries Exec case], the Supreme Court unanimously agreed […]
More here. Chapters that look as if they may be of particular interest to CL&P blog readers include The Enduring Dilemmas of Antifraud Regulation, The Shape-Shifting, Never-Changing World of Fraud, The Call for Investor and Consumer Protection (1930s to 1970s), Moving toward Caveat Venditor, Consumerism and the Reorientation of Antifraud Policy The Promise and Limits of […]
Here. Excerpt: Trump is expected to almost immediately dismiss Richard Cordray, who has been the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) since its creation in 2011. * * * "Consumer protection is important to a well-functioning financial marketplace," Neugebauer wrote in one of his arguments for a new CFPB structure. But "this protection […]
SCOTUSblog has more here. The case is Henson v. Santander Consumer USA, Inc.