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

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.

House Financial Services Committee Reported Set to Markup Financial Choice Act Next Week

by Jeff Sovern So CNNMoney reports here. The Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow; the witness list appears here.  Seems pretty rushed for a 600-page bill that would make major changes in financial regulation, including changing the structure of the CFPB, eliminating its power to prohibit unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices, abrogating its power to […]

Times: Loans ‘Designed to Fail’: States Say Navient Preyed on Students

Here (behind paywall). Excerpt: [T]wo state lawsuits filed by the attorneys general in Illinois and Washington, [allege] that Sallie Mae engaged in predatory lending, extending billions of dollars in private loans to students . . .that never should have been made in the first place. * * * New details unsealed last month in the […]