As explained in this article by Matthai Kuruvila, Oakland residents who use the debit function of the city's long-awaited municipal identification card will be charged much more in fees than they would pay if they chose a comparable prepaid card from a store, according to Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports. The organization, […]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Yesterday's decision from the Fourth Circuit in McCauley v. Home Loan Investment Bank cabins the preemptive scope of the Home Owners' Loan Act and associated regulations to pre-Dodd Frank consumer claims (Dodd-Frank has changed the legal landscape going forward, but the old regulations still govern a number of cases arising out of the Great Recession). […]
The Obama Administration has said that the Affordable Care Act will bring down health care costs. Next year, much of the Act will go into full effect. But private health insurers are apparently warning brokers that premiums will go up significantly next year because of the Act. Read about it here.
It's called Three Cheers for the Nanny State and is authored by Sarah Conly of Bowdoin College. The essay discusses Mayor Bloomberg's attempt to ban large sodas and behavioral economics.
Over at Slate, Blake Reid has written "The Digital Millenium Copyright Act Is Even Worse Than You Think," which argues that the DMCA keeps e-books, online video, and other material inaccessible to people with disabilities. Here are some excerpts: The [cell-phone] unlocking furor is just the latest example of popular opposition to the DMCA’s dreaded […]
by Brian Wolfman The Second Circuit issued a decision yesterday enforcing arbitration in a Title VII employment discrimination case. It rejected an argument that requiring arbitration would undermine effective vindication of federal statutory rights.The decision is Parisi v. Goldman Sachs. To simplify a bit, here's what happened: Three plaintiffs brought a putative employment discrimination class […]
That's the title of this article by Constance Bagley, Joshua Mitts, and Richard Tinsley. The article deals with concerns about last year's Caronia decision, where the Second Circuit ditched the misdemeanor conviction of a drug company prescription drug representative, saying that his promotion of one of the company's products was protected by the First Amendment. […]
by Theresa Amato (guest post) Reporter Jon Hilkevitch’s March 20 front-page Chicago Tribune story (“CTA’s Ventra debit option rife with fees, Contract’s fine print shows good deal for agency, not users”) describes the multiple unexpected charges awaiting customers in the fine print should they sign up for a prepaid debit card account along with their […]
by Brian Wolfman As explained in this article by Brady Dennis, the Department of Justice and the FDA have acquiesced in the D.C. Circuit's ruling striking down the FDA's new graphic cigarette labels on First Amendment grounds and announced that the government will not seek Supreme Court review of the D.C. Circuit's ruling. The Sixth […]
We have blogged recently (here and here) about the role some of the world's largest banks play in facilitating the payday loan industry. The latter article explained that JP Morgan was in the process of re-thinking its practices. Yesterday, JP Morgan announced its new policies, as explained in this article by Jessica Silver-Greenberg. Here's an […]