"Following a review of 22 private collection agencies, the U.S. Department of Education announced today that it will wind down contracts with five private collection agencies that were providing inaccurate information to borrowers. The five companies are: Coast Professional, Enterprise Recovery Systems, National Recoveries, Pioneer Credit Recovery, and West Asset Management. …. "In its review, […]
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Last Friday, the administration released a "discussion draft" of potential legislation to protect consumer privacy. CDT provides a helpful roadmap to the draft here. Today a coalition of consumer privacy groups (including CDT) responded with a letter asking the administration to strengthen provisions of the bill in areas such as the definition of sensitive information, […]
"Why it's nearly impossible to sue your credit card company" is the title of an article in today's Washington Post about the mandatory arbitration provisions that are now standard in credit card agreements and the Consumer Financial Protection Board's report, expected to be released next week, about mandatory arbitration in consumer financial agreements. The full […]
Read this article from Wired.com about automakers’ lack of attention to the security of their cars’ systems, and the investigation of Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts into the problem.
The Washington Post has a lengthy article today on payday lending by American Indian tribes. With some two-dozen tribes now offering installment and payday loans, Native Americans have found themselves wrestling with the merits of this lifeline. Following the formula used in casino gambling, tribes capitalize on their right to govern themselves in an otherwise […]
Sen. Warren's op-ed in the Post this week is a must-read, and a must-share: it explains how our country's consumer, worker, and environmental protection laws could be undermined by a dispute-resolution clause in the TPP, currently being negotiated. More generally, the danger Sen. Warren describes is a potent illustration of how trade deals that may […]
NPR reports: The Federal Communications Commission approved the policy known as net neutrality by a 3-2 vote at its Thursday meeting, with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler saying the policy will ensure "that no one — whether government or corporate — should control free open access to the Internet." The policy helps to decide an essential […]
From the website Main St.: A newly released Harvard study indicates that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has given Wall Street an advantage over Main Street – the opposite of what was intended. Two researchers at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government of the John F. Kennedy School of Government […]
The Wall Street Journal's "Pharmalot" reporter Ed Silverman reports on a bill introduced in the California legislature that is aimed at elucidating the mysteries of prescription drug pricing: As the prices of prescription medicines strain budgets, one California lawmaker wants to force drug makers to reveal their costs in a bid to provide some transparency […]
From the Bangor Daily News: A federal judge has overturned Maine’s first-in-the-nation law allowing residents to purchase medication by mail from other countries. U.S. Chief District Judge Nancy Torresen’s ruling Monday comes more than a year after several Maine pharmacy groups filed suit against the state over the 2013 law, arguing it jeopardizes the safety […]