Today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Bankers Association, American Financial Services Association, Consumer Bankers Association, Financial Services Roundtable, and a coalition of associations located throughout Texas filed a legal challenge to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s anti-arbitration rule. The complaint alleges that the rule violates the requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act because the CFPB study was flawed and based on biased data, and because the rule is harmful to consumers.
The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. It is assigned to Sidney Fitzwater,who has been on the bench since the 1980s.
The complaint is available here. (It is 422 pages, but the bulk of it is the rule itself.
My favorite paragraph of the complaint is 140, which claims irreparable harm because if the arbitration rule is allowed to go into effect and is then annulled, consumers “may be more willing to opt out of arbitration agreements.” I guess this indicates what the financial industry really thinks about opt-out clauses.