Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

CFPB Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law Issued its Report

by Jeff Sovern The report is here. I played hooky from the AALS Financial Serices & Consumer Financial Services program to listen to the Bureau's simultaneous event to release the report (don't tell Rory Van Loo). I haven't read the voluminous report but some comments on the remarks at the event: I learned that when […]

Article finds benefits from California law requiring disclosure of chemicals causing cancer

Claudia Polsky of Berkeley and Megan Schwarzman of Berkeley's School of Public Health have written The Hidden Success of a Conspicuous Law: Proposition 65 and the Reduction of Toxic Chemical Exposures, 47 Ecology Law Quarterly, (Forthcoming 2021). Here is the abstract: Newcomers to California could be forgiven for thinking they have crossed into treacherous terrain. By virtue […]

CFPB’s Consumer Finance Law Taskforce expected to issue 90-100 recommendations on January 5

by Jeff Sovern The CFPB has posted to its website an announcement that it will hold an event on January 5 to announce the "findings, analyses, and recommendations" of its Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law. Regular blog readers will recall that the Taskforce is not very diverse in a variety of ways. Earlier this […]

Becher & Sibony paper: the law and policy of product obsolescence

Shmuel I. Becher of Victoria University of Wellington and Anne-Lise Sibony of UCLouvain; TILEC have written In Search of a Lasting Lightbulb Moment: The Law and Policy of Product Obsolescence. Here's the abstract: Firms frequently employ various strategies that make products obsolete after a relatively short time or limited usage (“product obsolescence”). Early product obsolescence harms […]

SCOTUS takes FCRA class action case

The issue as framed by the petitioner, TransUnion, is whether "either Article III or Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 permits a damages class action when the vast majority of the class suffered no actual injury, let alone an injury anything like what the class representative suffered." More at SCOTUSblog.

Op-Ed: The COVID liability charade: Mitch McConnell’s demand is built on dishonest claims

Here. Excerpt: One reason there may have been so few consumer lawsuits is that it is difficult to prove exactly where and how a person got COVID, especially during a pandemic. And even in the rare case that a consumer can summon the needed proof, he or she would still have to show that the business did […]

Bill to protect people from pandemic economic crisis said to be collapsing over GOP insistence on protection against flood of law suits that doesen’t exist

by Jeff Sovern WaPo's report is here and HuffPo's here. Paul Krugman in the Times writes about how the GOP doesn't see real problems like climate change, but in this case they see a problem that doesn't exist. UPDATE: The Hill reports here that McConnell has suggested dropping liability protection and state and local funding […]

David Berman critique of consumer advocates’ advocacy against the proposed Restatement of the Law of Consumer Contracts

David Berman has written A Critique of Consumer Advocacy Against the Restatement of the Law of Consumer Contracts, 54 Columbia Journal of Law & Social Problems. Here is the abstract: In May 2019, the American Law Institute proposed adopting a Restatement of the Law of Consumer Contracts. In it, the Restatement’s Reporters suggested a “grand […]