An op-ed on the Washington Post's website today uses the United Airlines incident as a starting point to discuss lack of consumer choice in today's world. We are told that this is the era of the empowered consumer: The savvy shopper has oodles of time to browse around, comparing prices among various retailers, perhaps consulting […]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
A New York Times editorial today argues that revoking bonuses from two former Wells Fargo executives "is not enough to punish their misconduct, deter wrongdoing by others and restore trust in the bank — or in the rule of law when it comes to investigating and prosecuting bank executives." The editorial is here.
by Paul Alan Levy Last year I discussed an attorney fee application that I prepared on behalf of a small company making canvas totes that poke fun of such high-fashion royalty as Louis Vuitton by scrawling the words “My Other Bag” on one side of the totes and placing parody versions of various luxury brands […]
The New York Times reports: Wells Fargo’s board said on Monday that it would claw back an additional $75 million in compensation from the two executives on whom it pinned most of the blame for the company’s sales scandal: the bank’s former chief executive, John G. Stumpf, and its former head of community banking, Carrie […]
March 23, 2017 – New York Salesman Sentenced to Prison for Fraudulently Selling Vending Machine Businesses March 22, 2017 – South Florida Man Pleads Guilty To Mail Fraud In Connection With Jamaican-Based Fraudulent Lottery Scheme March 22, 2017 – Owner of New England Compounding Center Convicted of Racketeering Leading to Nationwide Fungal Meningitis Outbreak March […]
In its decision issued today in McGill v. Citibank, the California Supreme Court has unanimously held that arbitration agreements can't block consumers from seeking injunctive relief that benefits the general public under California's Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) and Unfair Competition Law (UCL). The decision strikes a blow against corporate efforts to use arbitration not just to […]
Last Friday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published its 2016 Consumer Response Annual Report, available here. The CFPB offered a few key takeaways: The CFPB handled 291,400 consumer complaints in 2016, a 7 percent increase over complaints handled in 2015. Debt collection, credit reporting and mortgages were the top three most-complained-about consumer financial products and […]
It's often claimed that patent law and its enforcement (or not) affects consumer well-being. We know, for instance, that the presence of a patent (or not) often has a significant effect on a drug's price. And drug companies maintain that patent protection promotes innovation, in turn, they say, benefiting consumers. (For more on that topic, […]
That's the name of this article by Steven Harper (subscription possibly required). Harper begins by telling us that his concerns over [Secretary of Education Betsy] DeVos's willingness to deal effectively with student-loan policy "goes far beyond the embarrassing ignorance on display at DeVos’ confirmation hearing. . . . She knows nothing about basic educational policy, the decades-old Individuals […]
This article by Bobby Allyn discusses a program, begun by the Obama Administration in 2015, to step up use of private law firms to collect student-loan debt through federal-court lawsuits. The program apparently includes obtaining judgments and then placing liens on poor people's homes. Allyn's article focuses on law suits filed in federal court in Philadelphia, […]