Take a good look at this easy-to-read, informative essay by law prof Heidi Li Feldman in the Harvard Law Review blog. In Why the Latest Ruling in the Sandy Hook Shooting Litigation Matters, Feldman explains that, among other things, the Connecticut Supreme Court's recent decision in Soto v. Bushmaster Firearms (concerning the prospect of liability for […]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
The New York Times has a lengthy article on Mick Mulvaney's tenure as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This account of Mulvaney’s tenure is based on interviews with more than 60 current or former bureau employees, current and former Mulvaney aides, consumer advocates and financial-industry executives and lobbyists, as well as hundreds […]
Avant, LLC, an online lending company, has agreed to settle the Federal Trade Commission’s charges that it engaged in deceptive and unfair loan servicing practices, including imposing unauthorized charges on consumers’ accounts and unlawfully requiring consumers to consent to automatic payments from their bank accounts. According to the FTC’s complaint, Avant offers unsecured installment loans […]
Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Deb Fischer (R-NE) have introduced a bill to prohibit large online platforms from using deceptive user interfaces, known as “dark patterns,” to trick consumers into handing over their personal data. Dark patterns refers to online interfaces in websites and apps designed to intentionally manipulate users into taking actions they would […]
Twelve corporate and four individual defendants have settled Federal Trade Commission charges that they deceptively marketed “cognitive improvement” supplements using sham news websites containing false and unsubstantiated efficacy claims, references to non-existent clinical studies, and fraudulent consumer and celebrity endorsements. The FTC also alleged that the defendants used affiliate marketers to make deceptive claims about […]
Myriam Gilles and Gary Friedman have written Rediscovering the Issue Class in Mass Tort MDLs. Here's the abstract: For the past twenty-plus years, MDL transferee judges have essentially regarded the class device as unavailable as they struggle to organize masses of tort actions sent their way by the JPML. Even the badges and incidents of […]
Read this new report by U.S. PIRG about how banks market debit cards on college campuses — cards that come with significant fees. The gist is that banks pay colleges big bucks via "paid marketing agreements" that give the banks the right to market student card accounts that will receive certain funds, such as student […]
The Washington Post reports today that the CPSC was pursuing a recall of the BOB stroller, which apparently has a defect that has caused hundreds of crashes. Then the Trump appointees to the Commission halted the effort. Staff members at the Consumer Product Safety Commission collected 200 consumer-submitted reports from 2012 to 2018 of spontaneous […]
Law prof Maya Steinitz has written Follow the Money? A Proposed Approach for Disclosure of Litigation Finance Agreements. Here is the abstract: Litigation finance is the new and fast-growing practice by which a non-party funds a plaintiff’s litigation either for-profit or for some other motivation. Some estimates placed the size of the litigation finance market […]
Read Michele Singletary's column about the scam here. The allegations against Office Depot were not pretty, and, as SIngletary explains, the Federal Trade Commission has put an end to the fraudulent scheme. Here's the gist of it: Although not admitting any wrongdoing, Office Depot and California-based Support.com have agreed to pay $35 million to settle the […]