by Jeff Sovern Rohit Chopra, of the Consumer Federation of America, recently served at the CFPB and obviously has experience with consumer protection issues. Simons, who formerly served as director of the FTC's competition bureau, is currently at Paul Weiss. I don't know what experience, if any, he has on the types of consumer protection […]
Category Archives: Federal Trade Commission
Here. Excerpt: In the area of national advertising, Pahl listed three priorities that indicate a return to a more traditional, conservative approach to law enforcement. First, he said the agency will focus on “fraud” and “quasi-fraud,” similar to the agency’s historic approach to deceptive weight loss and dietary supplement claims. A second priority is health […]
The HIll has the story here. Chopra has a strong record of protecting consumers, having been the student loan ombudsman at the CFPB, and is currently at the Consumer Federation of America (we quoted him just last week). The FTC currently has two commissioners in place out of five, one from each major party, and cannot […]
by Jeff Sovern The Department of Justice has now filed its brief in PHH, arguing that the CFPB as created by the Dodd-Frank Act was unconstitutional because the statute did not give the president the power to fire the Bureau's director without cause, and that the appropriate remedy is the one selected by the original […]
by Jeff Sovern As an independent agency, the CFPB can issue regulations without approval from the Office of Management and Budget. But the House has now passed a bill that would require OMB to review major regulations promulgated by independent agencies, including the CFPB and the FTC (though the FTC seldom produces regulations, a topic […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. Here's something they say about transferring the Bureau's authority to the FTC: Transferring all federal consumer protection authority to the Federal Trade Commission, the agency with vast regulatory experience in assessing practices affecting consumer financial services markets, would dramatically improve the federal regulatory framework for consumer financial protection. Maybe Heritage should have paid […]
The WSJ recently published Companies Seek to Sway Trump Administration on FTC Choice (behind pay wall) about who the next FTC chair will be. Google's rivals want Utah AG Sean Reyes, while acting chair Maureen Ohlhausen remains a possibility. Commissioner Ohlhausen is seen as more accommodating to Google because of an earlier antitrust decision in which she […]
Here. Excerpt: They can figure out when you leave town and see where you parked your car. They can see how many times you went to the grocery store or the health clinic. Auto loans to Americans with poor credit have been booming, and many finance companies, credit unions and auto dealers are using technologies […]
Here. Thomas Pahl will be the acting director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection.
by Jeff Sovern The FTC, New Jersey AG's Office, and Vizio have agreed to a court order under which Vizio will pay 2.2 million to settle charges that Vizio recorded and sold information about the viewing practices of consumers watching Vizio TVs without obtaining consumers' consent and without their knowledge. You can read Leslie Fair's […]