by Jeff Sovern Last week, we linked to Ed Mierzwinski's post about complaints about CFPB information-gathering processes. There's more. Over at the Taking Charge blog, Fred Williams has a post on the CFPB data collection, Privacy Agencies Say Don't Worry: Consumer Bureau is No Spy. Here's an excerpt: "I am not aware of any privacy […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
by Jeff Sovern As Deepak pointed out last week, a lot has been going on in debt collection, and one item is that the CFPB has issued a bulletin stating that people subject to its jurisdiction may not commit unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices in collecting debts. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act generally does […]
Ed's excellent post is here. Those who purport to be so concerned about the privacy of bank customers should seek to amend the Gramm-Leach-Bliley privacy provisions to bar banks from selling consumer information unless their customers affirmatively opt-in to the sale of that information. But that would mean supporting consumer protection, precisely what the CFPB […]
Here. The article is about the problem of boilerplate more generally than the headline suggests and is definitely worth a read. Here's my favorite quote: “I’m not someone who wags his finger and says you should read [online contracts],” said Douglas G. Baird, a professor of law at the University of Chicago. “If you read […]
Amy Schmitz of Colorado has written Ensuring Remedies to Cure Cramming, 14 Cardozo J. of Conflict Resolution 877 (2013). Here's the abstract: The unauthorized addition of third party charges to telecommunications bills ("cramming") is a growing problem that has caught the attention of federal regulators and state attorney generals. This Article therefore discusses the problems […]
by Jeff Sovern This is completely self-serving, but law professor readers of this blog may be interested to learn that the fourth edition of our casebook, Consumer Law, Cases and Materials, Fourth Edition is now available. As I said in April, our goal was to continue comprehensive coverage of core consumer law subjects (like deceptive advertising, Truth in Lending, […]
Linda Fisher of Seton Hall has written Shadowed by the Shadow Inventory: A Newark, New Jersey Case Study of Stalled Foreclosures & Their Consequences, forthcoming in the UC Irvine Law Review. Here's the abstract: Foreclosure activity has declined recently in some areas, but a number of states, such as Florida, New Jersey, and Illinois, showed […]
That's the topic of a Times article, Democrats Plan Challenge to G.O.P.’s Filibuster Use. The plan seems to be to leave unchanged the filibuster rules for legislation and confirmation of judges, but limit use of the filibuster for votes on confirmation of agency appointees. Such a change would make it easier to vote on confirmation […]
David Ray Papke of Marquette has written Perpetuating Poverty: Exploitative Businesses, the Urban Poor, and the Failure of Liberal Reform. Here's the abstract: This article scrutinizes the rent-to-own, payday lending, and title pawn businesses – all of which target and exploit the urban poor. Each type of business has developed a sophisticated business model that […]