At the New York Times, reporter Adam Liptak writes about the Supreme Court's June decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert and explains why what might have been an unremarkable First Amendment case may have significant consequences for a wide range of laws, including consumer protection laws. The key move in Justice Thomas’s [majority] opinion […]
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The New York Times carries a story about the punishing pace that Amazon staff have to endure as the company squeezes every ounce of productivity out of them. Work-life balance? What's that?
That's the name of Brian McFadden's comic strip on how consumers can sensibly offset the negative health effects of sugary drinks through exercise (not really). McFadden's comic reminds me of Coke's funding of the oddly-named Global Energy Balance Network.
The court explained: The crux of the Plaintiffs’ complaints is that when someone uses a non-bank ATM, the cardholder pays a greater fee and the ATM operator earns a lower return on each transaction because of certain Visa and MasterCard network rules. These rules prohibit differential pricing based on the cost of the network that […]
Beryllium, a known carcinogen, is used in the construction industry, electronics manufacturing, and the nuclear energy industry, among others. Public Citizen estimates that 23,000 construction workers come into contact with beryllium daily. Last week, fourteen years after Public Citizen first petitioned OSHA for stronger worker protections against beryllium, OSHA issued a proposed rule lowering the […]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today issued a statement of principles on enforcement of its "unfair competition" authority under section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Four commissioners voted for the statement, and one commissioner dissented. Go here to get all of the agency's info on the topic. The agency summarized its statement as follows: […]
We’ve discussed several times (see for instance here and here) an issue that’s been percolating in the courts of appeals the last few years and which has been taken up by the Supreme Court for the coming Term in the case of Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez: whether a defendant’s offer of judgment for complete relief under […]
…pretty much sums it up. This policy, announced last week, will hopefully spur other employers toward better policies. Reuters has the story, which notes that the national norm for paid parental leave is only a month.
The Federal Communications Commission announced a $2.96 million fine against Travel Club Marketing, Inc., related companies, and the companies’ owner, for making at least 185 unsolicited robocalls. The calls were prerecorded advertising calls to consumers who had not consented to the robocalls; the majority of the consumers had listed their telephone number on the national […]
The Federal Trade Commission announced today: The Federal Trade Commission has charged a data broker operation with illegally selling payday loan applicants’ financial information to a scam operation that took millions of dollars from consumers by debiting their bank accounts and charging their credit cards without their consent. According to the FTC’s complaint, the data […]