Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Are chain pharmacies repeating the errors that caused Wells Fargo to open unauthorized bank accounts?

by Jeff Sovern A recent NY Times article, Chaos at Chain Pharmacies Is Putting Patients at Risk, reminded me of how the Wells Fargo quotas drove Wells employees to open unauthorized accounts.  There's a lot in the article, but here are two excerpts: [CVS] Staff members were supposed to persuade 65 percent of patients picking […]

Brady Williams Paper on Why Consumers Should be Able to Use Unconscionability as a Sword, Not Just a Shield

Brady Williams has written Unconscionability as a Sword: The Case for an Affirmative Cause of Action, 107 Calif. L. Rev. 2015 (2019).  Here's the abstract: Consumers are drowning in a sea of one-sided fine print. To combat contractual overreach, consumers need an arsenal of effective remedies. To that end, the doctrine of unconscionability provides a […]

Becher & Benoliel Paper on Sneak In Contracts

Shmuel I. Becher of the Victoria University of Wellington and Uri Benoliel of the College of Law and Business – Ramat Gan Law School have written Sneak in Contracts: An Empirical Perspective. Here's the abstract: Consumer contracts are a pervasive legal tool that governs much of our daily activities. In spite of – or perhaps due […]

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.