by Jeff Sovern Many states allow their consumers to sue misbehaving companies for unfair practices, including red and purple states like Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, states that we normally don't think of as being in the vanguard of consumer protection. This power can be important in protecting consumers. For example, the […]
Category Archives: Unfair & Deceptive Acts & Practices (UDAP), including Discrimination
by Jeff Sovern Level Playing Field is reporting that companies include in their arbitration clauses provisions that AAA, their arbitration service, has informed them have to be waived, meaning AAA won't enforce them. The clauses in question may deter consumers, who don't know that they won't be enforced, from bringing the arbitration at all. For […]
Today, the National Consumer Law Center released an updated version of its very helpful and informative 50-state UDAP survey. The page with links to the full report, executive summary, key recommendations, maps, charts, and appendices is available here. The press release is available here. Since the last survey, which was conducted in 2009, NCLC finds […]
Elise M. Nelson of Freshfields Bruckhaus and Joshua D. Wright of George Mason have written Judicial Cost-Benefit Analysis Meets Economics: Evidence from State Unfair and Deceptive Practices Laws, 81 Antitrust Law Journal (2017). Here is the abstract: Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act) prohibits "unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce." […]
Here, by Kate Berry (behind a paywall). The most potent weapon is, of course, the Bureau's UDAAP powers. Excerpt: [The Bureau's] vision statement unveiled as part of the new strategic plan dropped any reference to so-called UDAAP claims, suggesting that the agency will not use the Dodd-Frank authority as the same kind of blunt enforcement […]
Dee Pridgen of Wyoming has written The Dynamic Duo of Consumer Protection: State and Private Enforcement of Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Laws, 81 Antitrust L.J. 911 (2017). Here's the abstract: This article focuses on the critical importance to consumer protection of the “dynamic duo” of state and private enforcement mechanisms provided in state unfair and deceptive […]
Christopher Lewis Peterson of Utah has written Choosing Corporations Over Consumers: The Financial Choice Act of 2017 and the CFPB Consumer Finance Law Quarterly Report (forthcoming). Here is the abstract: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is the U.S. Government’s primary regulator and civil law enforcement agency governing consumer lending, payment systems, debt collection, and other […]
by Jeff Sovern The piece is by Richard Coniff and is titled Why We Don’t Vote With Our Wallets. Excerpt: [W]e get bored and look away from the dull crimes companies commit every day, like Wells Fargo foisting phony accounts and unwanted auto insurance on its customers. * * * Like Volkswagen selling “clean diesel” […]
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 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, […]