Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

NACA Webinar: How to become a federal judge for consumer attorneys

Becoming a Federal Judge: What Consumer and Civil Justice Attorneys Need to Know   June 14, 3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. ET   Pricing Members: no charge Nonmembers: no charge but must be approved (if you have not yet been approved to attend NACA webinars, you must email training@consumeradvocates.org to be vetted to attend) The Biden administration has demonstrated a […]

Paper on algorithmic price discrimination and consumer protection

Mateusz Grochowski of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law; Yale Law School; Polish Academy of Sciences – Institute of Legal Studies; Agnieszka Jabłonowska of the University of Lodz – Faculty of Law and Administration; European University Institute – Department of Law (LAW); Francesca Lagioia of the European University Institute – Department […]

Former employee of short-term lender explains how it snared consumers in debt traps

New Mexico recently enacted a 36% rate cap on consumer loans. Among the remarks that motivated them to do so was the following: Thank you Madam Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Will Hancock and I’m a student at the University of New Mexico School of Law. I had the displeasure of working […]

Who wrote the Utah Va, Colo, privacy laws? The Markup says it was industry lobbyists

Here.  Excerpt: Not just in Utah, but in Virginia and Washington, and Minnesota, tech companies have provided draft language that led to the introduction of industry-friendly privacy bills, according to legislators The Markup interviewed and previous reporting by Protocol.  Big Tech funded nonprofits like TechNet, the State Privacy and Security Coalition, and the Internet Association have […]

Hunt paper: The Failed Legal Case Against Student Debt Jubilee

John P. Hunt of UC-Davis has written The Failed Legal Case Against Student Debt Jubilee. Here is the abstract: This paper reviews and rebuts the arguments presented to date that the Executive lacks authority to engage in mass student loan cancellation. Legality skeptics have presented no compelling argument that the relevant statutory text, which authorizes the […]

FTC Calls for Research Presentations for PrivacyCon 2022

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a call for research presentations on a wide range of privacy and data security topics such as commercial surveillance and automated decision making for its annual PrivacyCon event, which will take place virtually on November 1, 2022. PrivacyCon 2022 will bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to discuss […]

Some comments on Alan Kaplinsky’s comments on my comments

by Jeff Sovern I am grateful to Alan Kaplinsky for commenting on two of my earlier posts, Whither Arbitration Regulation? and Why the CFPB is right that it can act against discrimination using its unfairness power. One of Alan’s posts is titled Why the CFPB’s expansion of its UDAAP authority to target discrimination requires rulemaking. In the other […]