by Jeff Sovern In his new book, Federal Trade Commission Privacy Law and Policy, Chris Hoofnagle writes (at page 137) about a 1971 petition by five GW law students to the FTC. The students urged the Commission to bar companies from making unsubstantiated claims and to require that chemically identical products be labeled to indicate […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Stephen J. Ware of Kansas has written The Politics of Arbitration Law and Centrist Proposals for Reform, 53 Harvard Journal on Legislation (2016). Here is the abstract: Arbitration law in the United States is far more controversial when applied to individuals than to businesses. While enforcement of arbitration agreements between businesses sometimes raises legal issues that […]
SCOTUSBLOG coverage here and here. Reuters reports here. The Reuters lead reads: "The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to decide whether Miami can pursue lawsuits accusing major banks of predatory mortgage lending to black and Hispanic home buyers resulting in loan defaults that drove down city tax revenues and property values." HousingWire has more […]
Here. Excerpt: * * * Affected businesses are likely to sue (in court, ironically) to try to block [the CFPB arbitration proposal]. In a move that conjures up the famous scene from “Blazing Saddles” in which Cleavon Little takes himself hostage, the financial industry has threatened to abandon consumer arbitration altogether if the regulation takes […]
Jane R. Bambauer, Jonathan D. Loe, and D. Alex Winkelman, all of Arizona have written A Bad Education, 2016 University of Illinois Law Review ___ (Forthcoming). Here is the abstract: Mandated disclosure laws achieve their regulatory goals by educating the public about latent attributes of a product or service. At their best, they improve the accuracy of […]
by Jeff Sovern Hensarling calls the bill the Financial Choice Act. Make America Great for Banks Act is closer to the truth. Based on a quick look, the bill would give bank lobbyists power over the CFPB by subjecting it to the appropriations process, increase the likelihood of deadlocks by turning the Bureau into a commission, […]
InsideArm.com reports that it "has learned from multiple industry sources" that the CFPB will hold a Small Business Regulatory Fairness Enforcement Act (SBREFA) proceeding the week of August 22 in connection with the Bureau's forthcoming debt collection regulations. The Bureau has to convene the SBREFA proceeding before proposing the new rules. Just to give a sense […]
Oren Bar-Gill of Harvard and Omri Ben-Shahar of Chicago have written Optimal Defaults in Consumer Markets. Here's the abstract: The design of default provisions in consumer contracts involves an aspect that does not normally arise in other contexts. Unlike commercial parties, consumers have only limited information about the content of the default rule and how […]
Amy Schmitz of Missouri has written Remedy Realities in Business-to-Consumer Contracting, 58 Arizona Law Review 213 (2016). Here is the abstract: Professor Jean Braucher greatly contributed to the exploration of consumer and contract law by questioning how the law operates in the real world and highlighting the importance of “law in action.” In recognition of that […]