Category Archives: Uncategorized

Privacy challenge to Facebook settlement has new allies

Today, both the FTC and the State of California weighed in regarding the case against Facebook over "Sponsored Stories." (As we've discussed, several objectors are challenging the class settlement in this case because it authorizes Facebook to use minors' images for advertising in violation of seven states' privacy laws.) Although neither the FTC nor California […]

D.C. Circuit upholds debit-card transaction fee regs, reversing district court decision invalidating them

The D.C. Circuit has upheld the Federal Reserve's debit-card transaction fee regulations, as explained in this article by Zoe Tillman. The circuit court's ruling reverses a decision of Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Circuit Judge David Tatel explains the parameters of the ruling right up front: Combining […]

Anti-fracking advocate’s motion to vacate restrictive injunction to be heard Monday

We've told you about the case of Vera Scroggins, who has been documenting the damage caused by fracking the Marcellus Shale in northeastern Pennsylvania. A few months ago, she was hit with an injunction barring her from any property that fracking company Cabot Oil and Gas owns, or to which Cabot leases the mineral rights […]

Read the CFPB’s Freedom of Information Act reports

by Brian Wolfman Federal agencies issue annual reports on their implementation of the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552.The reports say how many requests for information the agency gets, the bases for withholding information when information is withheld, the speed with which requests are fulfilled (or rejected), etc. One serious FOIA problem […]

Law professor Erwin Chemerinsky says Justice Ginsberg should quit the Supreme Court this summer

The Supreme Court sometimes affects consumer law and policy, so our readers may be interested in this piece by law professor Erwin Chemerinsky (pictured to the right). Chemerinsky urges Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to quit the Supreme Court after it has finished its work early this summer. Quitting then, Chemerinsky says, would allow the President […]

CFPB issues its 3rd annual report on debt collection

The Consumer Finanical Protection Bureau today issued its third annual report on oversight of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Among other things, the report provides an overview of debt-collection complaints the agency has received from consumers. The report: (1) provides background on the debt collection market; (2) summarizes the Bureau’sconsumer response function and the […]

Final report issued on $25 billion mortgage settlement

Remember the $25 billion settlement with Bank of America, Citibank, and other major mortgage servicers over fraud and other shoddy mortgage lending practices associated with the financial meltdown of 2008 and 2009? (Read about the settlement here and here.) The court-appointed monitor, Joseph A. Smith, Jr., has issued a final report and a slew of associated data […]