This week's settlement between the financial giant and the government is the latest in a string of billion-dollar settlements addressing Wall Street misconduct in the lead-up to the financial crisis of 2008. (The others were with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, and Morgan Stanley, and the values ranged from approximately $3 billion to $16 billion.) […]
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A company called Nest makes an electronic hub (the Revolv hub) that enables consumers to control the lights in their home remotely. Customers buying the product were promised "free lifetime service subscription." But next month, the Revolv hub will become inoperable, thanks to Nest itself. Why? Because the company prefers to put its resources toward a newer product […]
The Restoring Statutory Rights Act of 2016, sponsored by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, was sent to congressional committee on February 4, 2016 for consideration. The proposed legislation declares that the FAA “did not, and should not have been interpreted to, supplant or nullify the legislatively created rights and remedies which Congress . . . has […]
Read this story from Fusion about the Kansas farm that had the misfortune to be located near the geographic center of the country and became the "default" location for unlocatable IP addresses in the United States. What did that mean in practice? People who got scammed on the internet tended to think this farm was […]
Unions have successfully pushed counterintuitive carve-outs to minimum wage hikes in California permitting employers to pay union workers less than other workers. Union leaders say they are trying to make unionization more attractive to employers. But union members aren't pleased. The L.A. Times explains.
Keyless car ignitions — where the driver just pushes a button to start the car — is very convenient. But can it be dangerous. This article says that "at least 60 U.S. drivers … have parked cars with keyless ignitions in their garages, only to forget to push a button and turn the vehicles off." That can […]
The Washington Post reports: The head of a payday lending enterprise accused of charging more than 700 percent interest on short-term loans was indicted Thursday on federal racketeering charges. Charles M. Hallinan, 75, led a group that preyed on customers while taking in nearly $700 million from 2008 to 2013, according to the indictment. Hallinan […]
The Hill reports: The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau defended its record Thursday to critical Republican senators, who charged it with preferring punitive action over transparent rules and stifling the country’s credit market through unaccountable actions. CFPB Director Richard Cordray told the Senate Banking Committee that the agency's actions to crack down on […]
In a recent post, Jeff Sovern noted that, “About two-thirds of US law schools offer neither a doctrinal course nor a clinic on consumer law, despite the significance of the subject.” In many cases, this is because there are fewer law professors interested in teaching consumer, rather than a conscious effort on the part of […]