The New York Times reports today: The New York State attorney general’s office accused four major retailers on Monday of selling fraudulent and potentially dangerous herbal supplements and demanded that they remove the products from their shelves. The authorities said they had conducted tests on top-selling store brands of herbal supplements at four national retailers […]
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by Jeff Sovern In their book, More Than You Wanted to Know: The Failure of Mandated Disclosure, Omri Ben-Shahar & Carl E. Schneider mention the "Spanish Requirement," a rule that obliged sixteenth century Spaniards to deliver a speech in Spanish demanding surrender from New World audiences that did not understand Spanish. My research assistant, Eric Levine, dug […]
"Troubled by consumer complaints and loopholes in state laws, federal regulators are putting together the first rules on payday loans aimed at helping cash-strapped borrowers avoid falling into a cycle of high-rate debt," the New York Times reports this morning. Read "Rules Are Coming on Payday Loans to Shield Borrowers," here.
car title loans are marketed as small emergency loans, but in reality these loans trap borrowers in a cycle of debt. A typical car title loan has a triple-digit annual interest rate, requires repayment within one month, and is made for much less than the value of the car. – See more at: http://www.responsiblelending.org/other-consumer-loans/car-title-loans/tools-resources/what-are-car-title-loans.html#sthash.iYj0Yw6y.dpuf car […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has this on-line interactive tool for estimating what a consumer should pay for a home mortgage. Plug in loan type, amount, length, down payment, FICO credit score, location, etc., and the tool spits out the approximate market interest rate in the relevant location and the total cost of credit. The […]
We blogged last year about courts that send people to jail for their inability to pay their court debts. Yesterday the ACLU sued DeKalb County, Ga., over this unconstitutional practice, undertaken in partnership with a private debt collection company. According to their press release, the ACLU charges that "DeKalb County and for-profit Judicial Correction Services […]
Here are recent announcements relating to the work of the Department of Justice's Consumer Protection Branch: January 27, 2015 Peruvian Man Sentenced for Defrauding and Extorting Spanish-Speaking U.S. Residents through Fraudulent Call Centers January 21, 2015 United States Files Enforcement Action against Texas Debt Collection Company, Current President and Former Vice President to Stop Deceptive […]
Even when names and other personal information have been stripped from big data sets, as few as four pieces of random information may be enough to identify a specific person, according to a study to be published soon in the journal Science. The magazine explains: [The scientists] analyzed 3 months of credit card transactions, chronicling […]
That's the title of this article by Anahad O'Connor. Here's an excerpt: Companies are increasingly adding vitamins and minerals to juices, sports drinks and bottled water, responding to a growing consumer demand for these products. Even though the amounts of added nutrients in these drinks are typically small, some nutrition scientists are concerned that through […]
by Steve Gardner The DC Circuit just issued its opinion in POM’s appeal of the FTC’s excellent order against POM for some of its marketing practices. The opinion is 45 pages long, so let me provide the Court’s own summary of the opinion: The FTC Act proscribes—and the First Amendment does not protect—deceptive and misleading […]