The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today issued its third Snapshot of Complaints Received from Servicemembers, Veterans and their Families. The report details the data and trends from consumer complaints received by the CFPB from members of the military and their families since July 2011. Points highlighted by the CFPB include: Debt collection complaints have continued […]
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by Paul Alan Levy Over the past couple of decades, federal courts have a uniform answer to the question whether state anti-SLAPP statutes applied when state law claims were pursued in federal court. Anti-SLAPP statutes give the defendants in cases brought over the exercise of free speech rights on matters of public interest, and certain […]
We've discussed before some of the troubling aspects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Here's another one: the fact it's being negotiated in secret. As a Times op-ed argues, [T]he secrecy of trade negotiations does not just hide information from the public. It creates a funnel where powerful interests congregate, absent the checks, balances and necessary hurdles […]
In a ruling that seems too obvious to have been the subject of debate (though it was), the Sixth Circuit held this week that Title VII's protection against being subject to discrimination "because [the employee] opposed . . . an unlawful employment practice,” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a), covers a worker who resists sexual harassment by […]
As the New York Times reports today, Deutsche Bank will pay a $2.5 billion penalty to United States and British authorities to settle accusations that it helped manipulate the benchmarks used to set interest rates on trillions of dollars in mortgages, student loans, credit cards and other debt, officials said on Thursday. The rate that […]
"It's Time to Regulate E-Cigarettes" is the title of an op-ed in today's New York Times by former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids President Matt Myers. Noting that "youth e-cigarette use tripled in just one year, surpassing the use of traditional cigarettes," the writers express concern that "E-cigarettes […]
FICO — the business analytics company that calculates everyone's credit score — has agreed to provide free credit scores to consumers who seek counseling through non-profit credit counseling organizations. FICO noted that it was influenced by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which believes that credit counselors' work is more effective when the counselor and consumer […]
The recent announcement of an FTC settlement with a company called AmeriFreight that was paying customers to write reviews, then trolling for new customers by pointing to its favorable online ratings, brings to mind the controversy a few years ago about the FTC's amendments of its advertising guidelines to apply to misleading use of online […]
In a recent interview on The Daily Show, the Senator explains how students and large financial institutions are treated differently when it comes to being able to get out of high interest rates -– and why she thinks the laws are the way they are (spoiler alert: it’s not because it’s a good idea). Watch […]
From the Federal Trade Commission's press release: A national mortgage servicing company will pay $63 million to resolve Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau charges that it harmed homeowners with illegal loan servicing and debt collection practices. The FTC and CFPB allege that Green Tree Servicing LLC made illegal and abusive debt collection […]