For two decades airlines have used and profited from their “unbundling” strategy—charging separately for individual products and services that were once included in the price of a plane ticket. Just in time for the holidays, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, chair of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), last week released a Majority staff report […]
Category Archives: Unfair & Deceptive Acts & Practices (UDAP), including Discrimination
Here. From the description of the episode: Today, we are joined again by Professor Boyack who has written a follow-up article entitled: “Abuse of Contract: Boilerplate Erasure of Consumer Counterparty Rights,” University of Missouri School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2024-03, which is the subject of our new show. The abstract of her […]
Larry Kirsch has written Power-Balancing: State Attorneys General and Unfair Mortgage Lending forthcoming in 9 International Review of Financial Consumers. Here’s the abstract: This paper is a case study in the enforcement of state unfair trade practice laws targeted at predatory mortgage lending and securitization abuses during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. It considers how […]
The FTC brought administrative proceedings against tax preparation company H&R Block, arguing that the company had made deceptive statements about its “free filing” products. H&R Block brought an action in federal district court seeking to enjoin the administrative proceedings, challenging the FTC’s structure. Yesterday, the FTC announced the parties had reached a settlement of the […]
Here. The podcast features people from both sides of the debate.
The Federal Trade Commission took action against Credit Karma in 2022, alleging that the company told consumers they were “pre-approved” and had “90% odds” of approval to entice them to apply for credit card offers that, in many instances, they ultimately did not qualify for. Credit Karma later agreed to to stop making these types […]
Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination “on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation.” Courts of appeals […]
In its recently released Supervisory report, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau highlights unfair (and abusive) acts and practices in auto financing. In this sector, the CFPB says its Supervision pays particular attention to auto repossessions, where it found numerous unfair acts and practices. Among them, the bureau found that a servicer or servicers erroneously repossessed […]
A company called “DoNotPay” operated an artificial intelligence service that it called “the world’s first robot lawyer,” which it claimed “would allow consumers to “sue for assault without a lawyer” and “generate perfectly valid legal documents in no time.” Not surprisingly, the product did not live up to its claims. In late September, the FTC […]
Tanya J. Monestier of Buffalo has written Amazon’s Dirty Little Secret, 69 Villanova Law Review 521 (2024). Here’s the abstract: You need new earbuds because one of yours just went missing. You log onto Amazon and scroll through the endless array of options. You finally select a pair “Sold by” Amazon and click “Buy Now.” […]