Consumer reporter Michele Singletary has penned this article entitled In New York, good riddance to a questionable hiring practice. Singletary explains that "[f]ederal law allows employment credit checks under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It requires employers to get an applicant’s or employee’s permission before pulling his or her history. But really, if you want […]
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The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act mandates that the CFPB conduct a study on the use of pre-dispute arbitration clauses in consumer financial markets. The Dodd-Frank Act specifically prohibits the use of arbitration clauses in mortgage contracts. And it gives the Bureau the power to issue regulations on the use of arbitration […]
The Sept. 7 New Yorker has a thoughtful piece about what college is really worth today from an economic perspective. The piece explores and criticizes various takes from recent literature on the subject. No one's got a wholly satisfactory answer, but it's definitely a question worth considering as the economy changes and tuition costs soar. One […]
A California-based online entertainment network has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by paying “influencers” to post YouTube videos endorsing Microsoft’s Xbox One system and several games. The influencers paid by Machinima, Inc., failed to adequately disclose that they were being paid for their seemingly objective opinions, the […]
The Federal Trade Commission has conducted a survey, following up on a December 2012 survey, examining what information children’s app developers are collecting from users, whom they are sharing it with, and what disclosures they are providing to parents about their practices. The findings will be announced in a series of blog posts. Here is […]
The Hill Reports that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) are pressuring automaker Fiat Chrysler to support a bill that would ban car rental companies from distributing recalled vehicles. Fiat Chrysler was recently fined $105 million by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for allegedly failing to properly notify drivers, car dealerships and […]
…are considered in a story that ran today on NPR's Morning Edition. Colleges that give applying students the option not to submit standardized test scores say they are trying to broaden the pool of applicants and achieve a more diverse student body. But achieving the first goal doesn't necessarily lead to the second, NPR reports, […]
Read this article by Susan Dynarski. Here's an excerpt: Politicians who complain about college costs frequently cite two numbers: one trillion and seven million. Student borrowers owe more than $1 trillion, and seven million borrowers are in default, according to the latest Department of Education data. * * * In many people’s minds, the so-called […]
by Paul Alan Levy Med Express, a Medina Ohio company that faced serious and widespread online obloquy during the spring of 2013 for filing a libel suit against two eBay users who posted mildly negative (but entirely truthful) feedback, has been ordered to pay nearly $20,000 in attorney fees and expenses for the work of […]
Guest post by Julie Murray (Public Citizen Litigation Group) Some states have recently adopted, and dozens of others have considered, laws that require food manufacturers to disclose whether their products have been made through genetic engineering (GE). These laws would at least give consumers useful information to guide their purchasing decisions amid the federal delay […]