Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

The CFPB’s Disappointing Abusiveness Policy Statement

by Jeff Sovern On Friday, the CFPB issued a Policy Statement on Abusive Acts or Practices. The Policy Statement is disappointing in several respects. First, it is intended to address a problem that has never been shown to exist. The Bureau explained that the Policy Statement is designed to ensure that “uncertainty does not impede or […]

Politico report on consumer groups’ opposition to proposed Community Reinvestment Act regs

Here.  Excerpt: Community groups across the U.S. are mobilizing to oppose a plan by President Donald Trump's bank regulators to radically remake a landmark law designed to combat discriminatory lending, saying the proposal would undercut that goal. * * * The groups say the proposed regulation, which Otting released jointly with the FDIC on Dec. […]

Arizona payday lenders oppose minimum wage increases; one acknowledges that increasing the minimum wage may hurt business

David Dayen has the story in The American Prospect. Here's an excerpt, but the entire story is worth a look: It may seem axiomatic, but it’s rarely stated out loud: Businesses that rely on poor people need the economic system to keep churning out poor people to survive. You almost have to applaud the payday […]

Marketing profs explain why bad customer service isn’t going to get better and why companies don’t care

Here, in The Conversation, by Anthony Dukes, Professor of Marketing, University of Southern California and Yi Zhu, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Minnesota. Excerpt:  Many complaint processes are actually designed to help companies retain profits by limiting the number of customers who can successfully resolve their complaints. Only by insisting to talk to a manager or […]

NY Times: This Is What Racism Sounds Like in the Banking Industry

Here.  Excerpt: Jimmy Kennedy earned $13 million during his nine-year career as a player in the National Football League. He was the kind of person most banks would be happy to have as a client. But when Mr. Kennedy tried to become a “private client” at JPMorgan Chase, an elite designation that would earn him […]

Professors who want an electronic version of the forthcoming new edition of our consumer law casebook . . .

by Jeff Sovern . . .  can get it here, by speaking to a West representative, or by clicking this link: https://signin.westacademic.com/Security/Login?redirect=%2fSAML%2fSSOService%3fSAMLRequest%3dfZJdT8IwFIb%252FytL7fQICDSNBiHEJ6sLQC29M6c6gydbOng7w39sNVLyApDc9X%252B%252FT93SCrCprOmvMTq7gswE0TrKIyQeMNgPo3Y3dzXBcuP2ox93RqA%252FuuM8DPrC5MAiI8wYahZIxiTx7SxAbSCQaJo0NBeHYDSM3DNZRRAN7Bt5w8E6chRURkpmucWdMjdT3UWylkN7B5hhnOVSCe1xVfjZ7WvpZ9pKB3gsOxHlQmkPHG5OClQitbsoQxR5%252BI6lWRnFV3guZC7mNSaMlVQwFUskqQGo4bSdTy003pyKkj%252Bt16qYv2Zo4M0TQLeFcSWwq0Gf919XyjxmOfMfkFq5QX5vhMayPxDlWpUTa%252BX%252Bbrz4%252FhkwnbTXtbNYX%252Fbfb2Q8GmV4FnvgXk08yNX22o5JFqkrBv1rbK2auK4Ve2EVE7hZdKW0k1sBFISC3fpalOsw1MGOXZHRjd%252BRPT6r%252Ff9%252F0Gw%253D%253D%26RelayState%3d%252FDocumentDisplay.aspx%253FDocID%253D26704%2526f%253D1%2526navTabIndex%253D1.  More information here.

Arbel & Shapira article on nudniks and consumer activism

Yonathan A. Arbel of Alabama and Roy Shapira of the Stigler Center, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, have written Theory of the Nudnik: The Future of Consumer Activism and What We Can Do to Stop it, forthcoming in the Vanderbilt Law Review.  Here's the abstract: How do consumers hold sellers accountable and enforce market […]

Chanrasekhar & Horton paper examines the source of the repeat player effect in consumer arbitration

Andrea Chandrasekher and David Horton, both of California–Davis, have written Empirically Investigating the Source of the Repeat Player Effect in Consumer Arbitration. Here's the abstract: Policymakers, courts, and scholars have long been interested in whether repeat players enjoy an advantage in forced arbitration. Sophisticated empirical studies of consumer and employment awards reveal that there is indeed […]

ProPublica story on how Utah payday lenders get borrowers jailed for missing payments

Here. Excerpt: Across Utah, high-interest lenders filed 66% of all small claims cases heard between September 2017 and September 2018, according to a new analysis of court records conducted by a team led by Christopher Peterson, a law professor at the University of Utah and the financial services director at the Consumer Federation of America, […]