Here, along with an explanatory memo. We had previously blogged about this Do Not Track effort. Here's the abstract: This document contains the decision of the Tracking Protection Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium, as issued in July, 2013 by the co-chairs, Peter Swire and Matthias Schunter, as well as a detailed […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Here. The story is about consumer reports maintained on consumers' banking practices originally intended to bar fraud but that often result in banks denying accounts to low-income consumers because of bounced checks and similar blemishes.
International & Comparative Law Fellow Emanwel J. Turnbull at Maryland has written Account Stated Resurrected: The Fiction of Implied Assent in Consumer Debt Collection. Here's the abstract: When are modern American consumers like 17th century merchants? The answer is “now”. Often, in collection lawsuits, creditors allege that consumers in debt are liable for an “account […]
by Jeff Sovern A couple of weeks ago, Ira Rheingold and I had an op-ed in the Times about issues with credit reports. Almost on cue, the Associated Press reports Jury awards Oregon woman $18.6M over credit report. It seems she had been trying to get Equifax to correct errors for two years. In the op-ed, […]
by Jeff Sovern A personal rant. Even consumer law professors have consumer irritations. Cell phones, including smart phones, occasionally develop problems. In the past, when that has happened, I've stopped by a local store run by my cell service provider and they have fixed the problem fairly quickly. But last year I got an Iphone from […]
Ian Ayres of Yale, together with Jeff Lingwall and Sonia Steinway, have written Skeletons in the Database: An Early Analysis of the CFPB's Consumer Complaints. Here's the abstract: Analyzing a new data set of 110,000 consumer complaints lodged with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, we find that (i) Bank of America, Citibank, and PNC Bank […]
by Jeff Sovern I just read a terrific article by Richard Craswell of Stanford, Static Versus Dynamic Disclosures, and How Not to Judge Their Success or Failure, 88 Washington Law Review 333 (2013). Here's the abstract: Disclosure laws can serve many different purposes. This Article is the first to distinguish two of those purposes, which […]
by Jeff Sovern Another self-serving post: West has just published the 2013 edition of Selected Consumer Statutes, which I edited along with John A. Spanogle, Ralph J. Rohner, Dee Pridgen, and Christopher L. Peterson. The book should be useful not just for consumer law courses, but also for consumer law practitioners who want a portable […]
Though the confirmation of CFPB Director Cordray mutes the issue of CFPB accountabilty, it does not moot it. Those who remain interested in the issue may wish to consult Susan Block-Lieb of Fordham's paper, Accountability and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, 7 Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law (2013). Here's the abstract: […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. According to the story, Republicans agreed to vote for Cordray because he promised to testify before (Portman's phrasing) brief (according to the CFPB spokesperson) the Appropriations Committee on the CFPB budget. Another piece of the agreement, according to Portman, is that the Bureau will implement cost-benefit analysis of CFPB regulations, though […]