My colleagues Greg Beck and Brian Wolfman have blogged here several times about the fight over the FDA's graphic cigarette warnings, which were invalidated by the D.C. Circuit on First Amendment grounds. Other countries, however, are continuing to require graphic warnings. And now from Australia comes the fascinating news that the new graphic warnings there […]
Author Archives: PC Litigation Group Office Assistant
Suddenly, there's a lot going on the in the world of debt collection regulation. On the heels of yesterday's announcement by the FTC of a huge debt-collection settlement (discussed in the post below), the CFPB is announcing today that it will use its UDAAP authority to regulate the collection practices of banks. “It doesn’t matter […]
by Deepak Gupta Whenever consumers use credit cards, merchants pay swipe fees, which are typically passed along to all consumers in the form of higher prices. American consumers pay the highest swipe fees in the world—eight times those paid by Europeans. These fees, which amount to about $50 billion annually, are highly regressive: low-income and minority cash […]
by Deepak Gupta The Voice of San Diego has been publishing a muli-part series on mandatory arbitration by reporter Will Carless. The most recent installment explores the war on consumer class actions and the impact of AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion. Previous installments focus on arbitration secrecy, the National Arbitration Forum debacle, and the plight of an individual […]
Big news: The CFPB today filed the first lawsuit that invokes the agency's authority under the Dodd-Frank Act to police practices that are not just unfair or deceptive, but "abusive." Observers of the agency have been eagerly anticipating the first use of that authority, which is new to the world of consumer law. The Bureau's Action […]
Carter Dougherty of Bloomberg has a must-read story on the practical effects of the constitutional controversy over Rich Cordray's appointment. The D.C. Circuit's ruling in Noel Canning, he reports, "has hampered the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, slowing some enforcement, impeding recruitment of a second-in-command, and delaying joint ventures with the states." Among other things, the Bloomberg […]
Off-label [that is, non-FDA approved] drug use is controversial. Some drug sellers, doctors, and patients think that cautious unapproved drug use advances medical science while helping to mitigate and cure disease, while some consumer advocates thinks it kills and injures patients. Law professors Fazel Kahn and Justin Holloway have written "Verify, then Trust: How to […]
In February, the brokerage firm Charles Schwab won a ruling from a hearing panel of FINRA, the financial industry regulatory authority, invalidating FINRA's rule against class-action bans and allowing Schwab to use a class-action ban in its customer agreements. The panel concluded that "the amended language used in Schwab's customer agreements to prohibit participation in […]
by Deepak Gupta A divided panel of the Third Circuit today joined the D.C. Circuit in holding that President Obama's recess appointments to the NLRB are unconstitutional. The case is NLRB v. New Visa Nursing and Rehabilitation. From the majority opinion by Judge Smith, who is joined by Judge Van Antwerpen: The central question in […]
On June 6, the FTC and the CFPB will co-host a joint roundtable event, "Life of a Debt: Data Integrity in Debt Collection," to examine the flow of consumer data throughout the debt collection process. The event, held at the FTC, will bring together consumer advocates, credit issuers, collection industry members, state and federal regulators, […]