The Center for American Progress today released a report discussing structural reforms to the court system and suggesting reforms to restore access to the courts — two topics that are discussed separately in the report but are surely related. The reforms suggested to restore individuals' access to the civil justice are not new ideas but […]
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing a new rule that would allow debt collectors to send consumers an unlimited number of texts and emails. The agency says that its rule would be good for consumers. The Washington Post reports, however, that consumer advocates worry the CFPB is giving the industry a new way to […]
This morning, in a unanimous opinion in a case is called CFPB v. Seila Law, Inc., the Ninth Circuit decided a challenge to the CFPB's structure. The CFPB is headed by a single Director who exercises substantial executive power but can be removed by the President only for cause. Relying on the Supreme Court’s separation-of-powers […]
The members of the American Law Institute are poised to vote on May 21 on whether to adopt, for the first time, a Restatement of the Law of Consumer Contracts. That's right: A Restatement that would purport to state the law on, among other things, the take-or-leave-it contracts that we "agree to" every day and […]
John Van Alst of the National Consumer Law Center has written this comprehensive report entitled Time to Stop Racing Cars: The Role of Race and Ethnicity in Buying and Using a Car. Here is the executive summary: For many in America, a car provides not only physical mobility but also economic mobility. Yet for years, […]
ProPublica and WNYC are investigating whether the Consumer Financial Protection Agency is enforcing federal consumer financial laws and holding companies accountable. They want to hear from people who work at the agency and those who have left recently, particularly people who are familiar with enforcement actions, supervisory exams, and proposed rules like those governing payday […]
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) provides people whose cell phones receive unconsented-to, autodialed calls and texts a right to sue. Since the Supreme Court's decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016), which held that statutory violations unaccompanied by "concrete injuries" do not provide a plaintiff with "standing" to sue in […]
Section 6(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act generally requires the Consumer Product Safety Commission to get permission from a manufacturer before releasing to the public any information about a defective product that would reveal the identity of the manufacturer. Even when the CPSC announces an alert or recall, companies often can restrict the information […]
In 2015, Congress amended the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to exempt calls made to collect a debt owed to or guaranteed by the federal government from the TCPA’s ban on unwanted robocalls to cell phones. Last week, in a case called American Association of Political Consultants v. FCC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for […]
Vox explains how consumer product recalls work and the need for improvements in the recall system in an article titled "People buy millions of unsafe products every year. Here’s why recalls are harder than they should be," here.