According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 3100 people were killed in 2020 alone because drivers were distracted. A significant percentage of the problem is caused by cell-phone use while driving. We all see people texting while driving. Sending or reading a text can take the driver's eyes off the road for […]
Bernard Chao of Denver has written Unjust Enrichment: Standing Up for Privacy Rights. Here is the abstract: In TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, one of the country’s largest credit reporting agencies violated the Federal Credit Report Act (“FCRA”) by failing to “follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy . . ..” As a result, thousands of […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued a legal interpretation to ensure that companies that use and share credit reports and background reports have a permissible purpose under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The CFPB’s new advisory opinion makes clear that credit reporting companies and users of credit reports have specific obligations to protect the […]
Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined Bank of America $100 million for botching the disbursement of state unemployment benefits at the height of the pandemic. The CFPB said that "Bank of America automatically and unlawfully froze people’s accounts with a faulty fraud detection program, and then gave them little recourse when there was, in […]
On the last day of its term, the Supreme Court issued its decision in West Virginia v. EPA—a decision highly anticipated, and perhaps dreaded, by federal agencies, administrative law experts, and members of the public who care about the ability of the government to act to protect public health, safety, consumer interests, and the environment. […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week issued an advisory opinion affirming that federal law often prohibits debt collectors from charging “pay-to-pay” fees. These charges, commonly described by debt collectors as “convenience fees,” are imposed on consumers who want to make a payment in a particular way, such as online or by phone. The press […]
Vijay Raghavan of Brooklyn has written Shifting Burdens at the Fringe, 102 Boston University Law Review (2022). Here’s the abstract: Scholars are increasingly arguing that consumer law can be a site of distribution. This raises at least two concerns: the classic argument associated with Louis Kaplow & Steven Shavell against redistributing income through legal rules, […]
The Federal Trade Commission yesterday sued Walmart for allowing its money transfer services to be used by fraudsters, who fleeced consumers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. In its lawsuit, the FTC alleges that for years, the company turned a blind eye while scammers took advantage of its failure to properly secure the money transfer […]
Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an interpretive rule affirming states’ abilities to protect their residents through their own fair credit reporting laws. The CFPB rule explains that, with limited preemption exceptions, states have the flexibility to preserve fair and competitive credit reporting markets by enacting state-level laws that are stricter than the federal […]
by Jeff Sovern When Congress enacted the Credit CARD Act of 2009, it provided that credit card penalty fees, like late fees, “shall be reasonable and proportional” and gave the Fed the power–later transferred to the CFPB–to set safe harbor amounts which would presumptively be reasonable and proportional. But it didn’t limit fees for credit […]