We've told you before about the mammoth "tax gap"– the difference between what Americans ought to pay in federal taxes and the amount that they actually pay: The IRS even publishes a tax gap map, which identifies the sources of the missing revenue. We've posted about the federal budget sequester and the craziness of cutting the IRS […]
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Law professor Rhonda Wasserman has written Cy Pres in Class Action Settlements. Here is the abstract: Monies reserved to settle class action lawsuits often go unclaimed because absent class members cannot be identified or notified or because the paperwork required is too onerous. Rather than allow the unclaimed funds to revert to the defendant or escheat […]
A fascinating talk here today from Acting Chairman Adler, who displayed a wide range of expertise and institutional memory about the CPSC's history, jurisdiction, and actions. Although his outlook is generally pro-regulatory, he also pointed to the importance of protecting small businesses from overly onerous regulations; he came across as neither inflexible nor one-sided in […]
by Paul Alan Levy When I was pulling together my recent analysis of Hadeed Carpet Cleaning’s assertion that its negative reviews had appeared on Yelp only after it pulled its advertising from Yelp, I figured that it might be helpful if I ran a cross-check against how Hadeed is portrayed on other web sites that […]
From the FTC’s press release: Two data brokers have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by providing reports about consumers to users such as prospective employers and landlords without taking reasonable steps to make sure that they were accurate, or without making sure their users […]
…is the title of this informative story from WSJ's MarketWatch about a new study from the Pew Charitable Trusts released today. The takeaway is that although most consumers don't read banking-contract fine print (the median length of which is 44 pages), more banks are adding verbiage to their checking account fine print that prevents customers […]
The Consumer Financial Protetion Bureau has obtained this big-dollar consent order from Bank of America (BOA) arising from the bank's unfair and deceptive credit-card practices. About 1.4 million consumers will receive refunds totalling $727 million. BOA will also pay the CFPB a $20 million civil penalty. CFPB Director Richard Cordray talked tough in announcing the […]
Even aside from concerns about Facebook and privacy, the people who set up this business must truly be, well, jerks …. On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission charged the operators of the website “Jerk.com” with harvesting personal information from Facebook to create profiles labeling people a “Jerk” or “not a Jerk,” then falsely claiming that […]
by Paul Alan Levy Following the recent decision of the Virginia Court of Appeals affirming the enforcement of a subpoena to Yelp by Hadeed Carpet Cleaning, demanding the identities of seven anonymous reviewers, and our petition to the Virginia Supreme Court seeking leave to appeal, Hadeed has been trying to organize a broader crusade against […]
As the Baltimore Sun reports, "Maryland's minimum wage will rise to $10.10 by July 2018 under a bill granted final passage by state lawmakers Monday. The measure goes to Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley for his promised signature." For a good discussion of the political debate over the effects of the minimum wage, listen to this […]