Several items of interest on the Hill this week: -We've recently discussed the (fortunately, failed) plan to delay protections for military personnel against predatory lending. Well, the fight isn't over — a bill to block the protections has been introduced in the House. Huffington Post has the story. -Also troubling: a discussion draft of a […]
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is collecting information about problems experienced with student loan servicing. According to the CFPB's blog: Over 40 million Americans are repaying more than $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt. Significant debt can have a domino effect on the major choices you make in your life: whether to take a […]
After a week in which the President dealt out unusually harsh criticism of members of his own party for opposing free trade deals — though these deals, in fact, threaten to undermine U.S. consumer protection laws and hand a lot more power to multinational corporations — the administration's trade agenda failed a crucial test in […]
Yesterday, in what otherwise might have been a garden-variety opinion enforcing an arbitration agreement, Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit had some striking things to say about arbitration. His opinion sarcastically pooh-poohed the idea that arbitration agreements are "darlings" of the law and went on to question whether […]
Rebecca Tushnet’s blog calls attention to a bizarre cybersquatting complaint that was recently filed in the Northern District of California by ThermoLife, an Arizona company that touts its dietary supplements as providing “the purest, most powerful and innovative products” using the trademark “Muscle Beach.” The trademark claims are utter nonsense, but the proceeding raises a […]
The California Supreme Court has revived a series of antitrust suits against drug manufacturers Bayer and Barr Laboratories. The cases stem from an agreement between brand-name manufacturer Bayer and generic manufacturer Barr, under which Bayer agreed to pay Barr $398.1 million in exchange for Barr postponing the sale of the generic version of Bayer’s antibiotic […]
Ruling in a case brought by the nation’s largest flight attendant union, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled on Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration acted within its authority when it decided, in 2013, to allow airline passengers to use cellphone and other electronics during takeoffs and landings. The Association of […]
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion on Friday holding that private attorneys under contract with the Ohio attorney general’s office to collect debts owed to the state improperly used the office’s letterhead to scare debtors into paying. The court held that use of the letterhead of the Ohio attorney general’s office was […]
A big victory for consumers, as the New York Times explained late last week: Two of the nation’s biggest banks will finally put to rest the zombies of consumer debt — bills that are still alive on credit reports although legally eliminated in bankruptcy — potentially providing relief to more than a million Americans. Bank […]
In a lawsuit filed today against the Food and Drug Administration, the drug manufacturer Amarin Pharma claims that the FDA's bar on drug companies marketing their products for uses that have not been approved by the FDA violates the company's right to free speech. In this case, not only is the use unapproved, but the […]