On Friday, a Texas district judge held that the CFPB’s authority to prohibit “unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices” does not authorize the agency to regulate discrimination as one such practice, invoking the major questions doctrine. As such, in a win for the Chamber of Commerce, he vacated the CFPB’s March 2022 update to […]
Category Archives: Unfair & Deceptive Acts & Practices (UDAP), including Discrimination
The DOJ press release is here. The emails are disturbing (see for yourself below) and are reminiscent of the Trident case. The case resulted in a consent order though, as is usual in such cases, the bank neither admitted nor denied the complaint’s substantive allegations. What makes this even more upsetting is that bank trade […]
The Federal Trade Commission will permanently ban Roomster Corp. and its owners from buying or incentivizing consumer reviews as part of a settlement over charges that they bought fake reviews to entice consumers to pay for access to living arrangement listings that they claimed were verified, authentic, and available but often turned out to be […]
The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice are sending a total of more than $9 million in refunds to 22,562 consumers who lost money to Ameritech Financial, a student-loan debt-relief scheme operated by Brandon Frere, who was convicted of criminal charges in connection with the scheme. Details are here.
Last month, the FTC updated its Endorsements Guide. The Guide’s definition of clear and conspicuous is particularly interesting. The Guide states: (f) For purposes of this part, “clear and conspicuous” means that a disclosure is difficult to miss ( i.e., easily noticeable) and easily understandable by ordinary consumers. * * * In any communication using […]
Regular readers of the blog will recall that after the CFPB announced that it interpreted its power to proscribe unfair practices as reaching discriminatory conduct, the Chamber of Commerce and various banking trade organizations sued the Bureau in the Eastern District of Texas (it’s always Texas) challenging the Bureau’s determination. Both sides later moved for […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released a new Supervisory Highlights report describing unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices across many consumer financial products. For example, auto lenders have originated loan balances above the real value of the car being purchased and engaged in illegal collection practices while servicing these loans. The latest edition […]
The Federal Trade Commission has announced a claims process by which consumers who purchased a DreamCloud mattress and were influenced by the company’s claims that the product was made with U.S. materials can apply for a refund. Details are here.
In 2004, California amended its unfair competition law to eliminate associational standing–that is, membership organizations could no longer bring claims based on injuries to their members. Only claims based on injuries to the organizations themselves could serve as a basis for suit. Yesterday, in California Medical Association v. Aetna Health of California, the California Supreme […]
“You don’t need much agricultural expertise to know that every weed is supported by an extensive underground root structure.” What an A+ quote from the Federal Trade Commission’s business blog (Lesley Fair), which gives a visual description of the government’s latest effort to combat pervasive robocalls, this time tackling robocalls’ root structure: third-party lead generators. […]