Tamara R. Piety of Tulsa has written Advertising as Experimentation on Human Subjects. Here's the abstract: Within the industry, it is an article of faith that consumers distrust advertising. One reason for that distrust may be that they fear being manipulated. Yet the debate about advertising and manipulation always seems to revolve around how much manipulation […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
by Jeff Sovern That's the question David Dayen raises in an important essay in InTheseTimes, Trump Appointees Are Pushing a Deregulation Plan That Could Dramatically Erode Consumer Protections. As Dayen points out, in the run-up to the Great Recession, the OCC proclaimed that state anti-predatory lending laws were preempted as to national banks. We know […]
Rory Van Loo of BU has written Technology Regulation by Default: Platforms, Privacy, and the CFPB. Here's the abstract: In the absence of a technology-focused regulator, diverse administrative agencies have been forced to develop regulatory models for governing their sphere of the data economy. These largely uncoordinated efforts offer a laboratory of regulatory experimentation on governance architecture. […]
by Jeff Sovern Here is a report by Kate Berry in the American Banker (behind paywall). A vote for her would be a vote for someone without experience in or any demonstrated knowledge of consumer law and for someone who professes to value transparency but who was not transparent during her confirmation hearings. UPDATE: Evan Weinberger […]
by Jeff Sovern David Dayen has coined the phrase, the "Mulvaney Discount," to describe the tendency of CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney to settle cases for less than the original amount. As Dayen and others have pointed out, Mulvaney's CFPB has been announcing more enforcement cases than it did in his first six months. That's […]
by Jeff Sovern We just posted to SSRN the draft of our article, Validation and Verification Vignettes: More Results from an Empirical Study of Consumer Understanding of Debt Collection Validation Notices, Forthcoming in the Rutgers U. L. Rev. (with Kate Walton & Nathan Frishberg). Comments welcome! Here's the abstract: The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act obliges debt […]
So Bloomberg reports (no link available). Kraninger has until July 31 to answer any questions senators submitted after the hearing, so if any such questions were submitted, and she takes the full time allotted, that won't leave much time to digest her answers. The Senate is expected to take a recess during the week of […]
by Jeff Sovern So reports Nancy Cook, in Politico. The adviser is not identified. Excerpt: Mulvaney also has received accolades for his slow dismantling of the former CFPB, a brainchild of Elizabeth Warren’s that was created by Democrats in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and has long been a favorite target for Republicans. […]
Jonathan Weinberg of Wayne State has written 'Know Everything that Can Be Known About Everybody': The Birth of the Credit Report, Villanova Law Review, Forthcoming. Here is the abstract: A remarkable amount of our personal information is in the hands of corporations such as the Experian credit bureau; strangers to us, they make their money by collecting our […]
by Jeff Sovern In her written testimony, and again in her oral testimony, Kathy Kraninger, the president's nominee to head the CFPB, promised to be transparent and accountable. But her testimony yesterday, in which she said giving her personal opinion was not appropriate, was anything but. Don't take my word for it; here's how one […]