Category Archives: Unfair & Deceptive Acts & Practices (UDAP), including Discrimination

Report that CFPB Could Use UDAAP Powers House Has Voted to Repeal Against Equifax

by Jeff Sovern Reuters has a report here.  Excerpt: The U.S. consumer finance watchdog agency is expected to punish Equifax for its cyber breach with the wide-ranging powers it has used with Wall Street, former agency officials and lawyers said this week. The credit-reporting company is subject to five federal laws governing listed companies, the […]

Lauren Willis Article on Ordering Firms to Eradicate Their Own Fraud

Lauren E. Willis of Loyola of Los Angeles has written Performance-Based Remedies: Ordering Firms to Eradicate Their Own Fraud, 80 Law and Contemporary Problems 7-41 (2017). Here is the abstract: In resolving cases of unfair, abusive, and deceptive acts and practices, consumer protection enforcement agencies often prospectively dictate—in great detail—the design of defendants’ marketing, websites, […]

Law360 Interview with Acting Head of FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau Thomas Pahl

Here. Excerpt: In the area of national advertising, Pahl listed three priorities that indicate a return to a more traditional, conservative approach to law enforcement. First, he said the agency will focus on “fraud” and “quasi-fraud,” similar to the agency’s historic approach to deceptive weight loss and dietary supplement claims. A second priority is health […]

House Appropriations Committee Passes Bill To Gut Consumer Financial Protection and Repeal CFPB’s Authority to Regulate Arbitration

by Jeff Sovern On a party line vote of 31-21, the House Appropriations Committee passed the Financial Services Appropriation bill.  Section 930 of the bill repeals the CFPB's authority to regulate arbitration.  Section 926 would subject the CFPB to the congressional appropriations process, thereby making it more accountable to lobbyists. Section 927 would gut the […]

Dadush Article on Identity Harm

Sarah Dadush of Rutgers has written Identity Harm, 89 University of Colorado Law Review (Forthcoming).  Here is the abstract: In September 2015, the world learned that Volkswagen had rigged millions of its “clean diesel” vehicles with illegal software designed to cheat emissions tests. Contrary to what had been advertised, the vehicles are anything but clean. The […]

The House Appropriations Bill Is Much Worse for Consumers Than Originally Reported

by Jeff Sovern We posted yesterday about the House Appropriations Bill. I haven't studied the bill, but on a quick look, it contains a number of objectionable provisions from the Financial Choice Act (already passed by the House), including repeal of the CFPB's power to regulate arbitration and payday lenders and to block conduct on […]

Prentiss Cox et al Op-ed: Why we must not gut consumer protections

Here, in Minnesota's Star-Tribune. Prentiss wrote it with two other original members of the Bureau's Consumer Advisory Board, Jose Quinonez and William Bynum. Excerpt:  Have you ever been an eyewitness to an event and later seen it written about in a way that directly contradicts your experience? As three people who witnessed close-up the Consumer […]

Duranske Article on Regulation Health and Wellness Claims

Sarah Duranske of Stanford has written This Article Makes You Smarter (Or, Regulating Health and Wellness Claims), Forthcoming in the American Journal of Law and Medicine. Here is the abstract: Information has power – to inspire, to transform, and to harm. Recent technological advancements have enabled the creation of products that offer consumers direct access […]

CEI: Olive Oil Settlement Uses Slippery Tactics to Reward Attorneys at Consumers’ Expense

Here, in a report by Ted Frank (who is objecting to the settlement) and Will Chamberlain about Kumar v. Salov North America Corp., . Excerpt: The class will probably recover about $320,000 in cash; roughly 65,000 class members jumped through the hoops to file claims worth about $5 each. But class counsel is asking for […]

CBS News: Only 18 AT&T Customers Brought Arbitration Claims Despite Thousands of Overcharging Complaints

Here.  The story reports that AT&T has nearly 150 million customers and that the eighteen claims were filed in the last two years. UPDATE: See comment by Gregory Gauthier below.