Recently I took a redeye from California to New York. I paid a bit more for extra leg room in the hope that it would help me sleep. But when I boarded the flight, I discovered a metal box–part of the plane–taking up some of the space under the seat in front of me. The […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Here (behind paywall; disclosure: it includes a short piece I wrote).
With Angie Littwin of Texas, NCLC’s Carla Sanchez-Adams, and others at Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast.
American Banker’s Kate Berry has the story here. Johnson served as former CFPB director Kathy Kraninger’s second-in-command during the first Trump administration. It remains to be seen whether he is more like Vought or Kraninger or goes in a different direction but I can’t say I’m optimistic.
At Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Finance Monitor podcast. From the episode description: Amelia advances a bold thesis in her article: that consumer protection law, and particularly consumer financial protection law, may be the most impactful body of law in the United States. She further argues that the strength of consumer protection laws may serve as a […]
The ALI is working on a new project, Principles of the Law, Civil Liability for Artificial Intelligence. NYU Professor Mark Geistfeld is the reporter. Alan Kaplinsky interviewed him for Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Finance Monitor podcast about the project and some of AI’s implications for consumer law.
Regular Amazon users probably know that if they agree to subscribe to certain products and receive deliveries at regular intervals, Amazon charges less than if they buy the items one at a time. But now some plaintiffs have brought a would-be class action in which they claim that Amazon raises the price after someone subscribes, […]
As reported by Bloomberg’s Evan Weinberger, the CFPB has removed from its website all public statements made before February 2025. That includes reports like the Bureau’s extensive arbitration study. Somehow, I am not surprised.
Barney Frank, whose name graces the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the CFPB and enacted multiple consumer protections, has died at the age of 86. As long as the CFPB protects consumers (it will rise again!), the CFPB and the Consumer Financial Protection Act stand as a memorial to Frank’s important work to protect Americans.
Kate Elengold of UNC and Sophie Laing Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Inc. have written Offsetting Justice: Using Government Power To Collect Private Debts, 175 Penn. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2027). Here’s the abstract: Private creditors regularly hire third-party debt collectors to recoup debt on their behalf by contacting, coercing, and suing consumer debtors. Scholars, advocates, and policymakers […]