Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Study examining content and readability of terms of use illustrates how crazy arbitration opt-outs have become

Tim Samples of the University of Georgia – Terry College of Business, Katherine Ireland of the University of Georgia Libraries, and Caroline Kraczon, a law fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, have written TL;DR: The Law and Linguistics of Social Platform Terms-of-Use, Berkeley Technology Law Journal (forthcoming 2023). Here’s an excerpt from the article about […]

CFPB to propose rule to cover data brokers under the FCRA

Evan Weinberger has a report at Bloomberg Law (possibly behind paywall), as does Kate Berry at the American Banker (also behind paywall), and Reuters. Here’s an excerpt from the Bloomberg Law report: The coming proposal would seek to ban the sale of consumer data, including so-called “credit-header data” like a person’s name, address, or Social […]

Arbel & Becher paper on the pluses and minuses of consumers using smart readers for form contracts

Yonathan A. Arbel of Alabama and Samuel Becher of the Victoria University of Wellington have written How Smart are Smart Readers? LLMs and the Future of the No-Reading Problem. Here’s the abstract: Large Language Models (LLMs) can be used to summarize and simplify complex texts. In this study, we investigate the extent to which state-of-the-art models […]

Another podcast episode that may be of interest to readers of the CL&P blog

Ballard Spahr’s Alan Kaplinsky interviewed Arthur E. Wilmarth, Professor Emeritus at GW, about crypto and its regulation at this week’s episode of the Consumer Finance Monitor podcast. I learned some things from the discussion that I plan to incorporate in my Payments Systems class next spring. Some of the discussion drew on Professor Wilmarth’s forthcoming […]

Raba report on the burdens of debt collection litigation

Claire Johnson Raba of the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law and California, Irvine has written One-Sided Litigation: Lessons from Civil Docket Data in California Debt Collection Lawsuits. Here’s the abstract: A study by Claire Johnson Raba, a researcher with the Debt Collection Lab, shows that debt cases are an increasing burden on consumers and […]

The FTC’s Unavoidable Clear and Conspicuous Standard

Last month, the FTC updated its Endorsements Guide. The Guide’s definition of clear and conspicuous is particularly interesting. The Guide states: (f) For purposes of this part, “clear and conspicuous” means that a disclosure is difficult to miss ( i.e., easily noticeable) and easily understandable by ordinary consumers. * * * In any communication using […]

District Court Decision Coming Soon in Chamber’s Challenge to the CFPB’s Claim that Discrimination is Unfair

Regular readers of the blog will recall that after the CFPB announced that it interpreted its power to proscribe unfair practices as reaching discriminatory conduct, the Chamber of Commerce and various banking trade organizations sued the Bureau in the Eastern District of Texas (it’s always Texas) challenging the Bureau’s determination. Both sides later moved for […]