Regular Amazon users probably know that if they agree to subscribe to certain products and receive deliveries at regular intervals, Amazon charges less than if they buy the items one at a time. But now some plaintiffs have brought a would-be class action in which they claim that Amazon raises the price after someone subscribes, […]
Category Archives: Unfair & Deceptive Acts & Practices (UDAP), including Discrimination
Here. New § 1002.6 provides in part: ECOA “does not provide that the ‘effects test’ applies for determining whether there is discrimination in violation of the Act.” The regulation also purports to define discouragement and covers special purpose credit programs. I wonder how long before a court challenge is filed.
Alexander Panelli, a consumer who bought sheets that Target markets as “100% cotton” and “800 thread count” sued Target for violating California consumer law, alleging that the thread counts were actually much lower. In his amended complaint, he noted that it is “physically impossible for cotton threads to be fine enough to allow for 600 […]
In 2024, the FTC finalized its “click-to-cancel” rule, which tried to make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment in recurring subscriptions ias it was to sign up. In 2025, the Eighth Circuit vacated that rule on notice-and-comment grounds. Today, New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection proposed its own version […]
Last year, four consumers who were parties to arbitration agreements in which the sole choice of forum for dispute resolution was the American Arbitration Association sued the company under the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust acts, the Arizona Constitution, and state antitrust and unfair and deceptive practices laws. They alleged monopolistic practices, and that “the AAA […]
Will the Federal Trade Commission bring back its “click to cancel” rule? The FTC on Wednesday announced an “advance notice of proposed rulemaking,” inviting public feedback on whether to amend its regulation for automatic subscriptions (negative option rule). In October 2024, after years of observing rampant abuse of subscription traps harming consumers, the FTC finalized […]
New York’s General Business Law section 399-zzz, enacted in 2011, prohibits businesses from charging extra fees to pay by mail or to receive a billing statement — but does not prohibit such businesses from ” offering consumers a credit or other incentive to elect a specific payment or billing option.” Customers of TD Bank sued […]
Matthew Gaske of Indiana University – Kelley School of Business has written State Attorneys General and Federalist Technology Regulation. Here’s the abstract: Consumers are adopting novel technologies at increasing rates. These technologies’ versatility requires policymakers to weigh regulatory tradeoffs of increasing complexity. New laws addressing consumer-technology risks are slow to emerge, incoherent, or avoidable. Meanwhile, federal […]
Here. Excerpt: The F.T.C.’s chairman, Andrew Ferguson, appears to be testing a novel theory: that editorial judgment can be regulated as a deceptive trade practice. In this view, a news organization’s slogan — such as “fair and balanced” or “without fear or favor” — is no longer a statement of mission but a marketing claim […]
Here, on Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Finance Monitor podcast.