by Jeff Sovern Apparently the Lucchese Organized Crime Family charges less than a quarter of what payday lenders charge. Last week, New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced indictments of ten members of the group in the largest loansharking investigation in the office's history. Schneiderman's press release reports: [U]surious interest payouts exceed[ed] a million […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
The report, at CreditCards.com, is titled "Store-card issuers top list of complaints with the CFPB" and the subheading is" Purchase issues, unexpected fees or interest are most common card-related gripes." The report lists the most-complained-about issuers per $100M in card balances and also reports on which issuers give the most refunds. Here's an excerpt: It […]
Here is the tweet. It's always great to see a consumer law professor at a school ranked in the top twenty-five. Congratulations to UCI on its good judgment and to Dalié on the move.
Justin Sevier and Kelli Alces Williams, both of Florida State, have written Consumers, Seller-Advisors, and the Psychology of Trust, Boston College Law Review, Forthcoming. Here is the abstract: Every day, consumers ask sellers for advice. Because they do not or cannot know better, consumers rely on that advice in making financial decisions of varying significance. Sellers, motivated […]
by Jeff Sovern H.R. 5802 passed the House Financial Services Committee today, on a 35-25 vote. The bill would exempt from the FDCPA any lawyer to the extent that the lawyer "is engaged in litigation activities in connection with a legal action in a court of law to collect a debt . . ." If […]
by Jeff Sovern Kate Berry has a report at the American Banker, A CFPB commission will never fly, chock full of interesting quotes. The gist of it is that the Senate Democrats who voted for the bank bill oppose changes in the CFPB and so say they will not support a revised bill if the House […]
Colin P. Marks of St. Mary's has written Online Terms as In Terrorem Devices. Here's the abstract: Online shopping has quickly replaced the brick-and-mortar experience for a large portion of the consuming public. The online transaction itself is rote: browse items, add them to your cart, and checkout. Somewhere along the way, the consumer is likely […]
by Jeff Sovern CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney famously said that the Bureau should not push the envelope. He also said at the same time: There will absolutely be times when circumstances require us to take dramatic action to protect consumers. At those times, I expect us to be vigorous in our enforcement of the […]
by Jeff Sovern Here in the LA Times. Excerpt: [T]he current occupant of the Oval Office, President Trump, a wealthy businessman, is aggressively pursuing policies that undermine each of Kennedy's declared rights. * * * Kennedy proposed four basic consumer rights: The right to safety: "To be protected against the marketing of goods which are hazardous […]
Matthew A. Bruckner of Howard has written The Promise and Perils of Algorithmic Lenders' Use of Big Data, 93 Chicago-Kent Law Review (2018). Here's the abstract: Like many new technologies, algorithmic lenders’ use of Big Data holds great promise but may also be perilous. At the most basic level, Big Data is simply a toolkit for “creating, […]