“The Decade Class Actions Were Gutted”

An article in Slate today addresses the Supreme Court's cases greatly restricting the availability of class actions as a recourse for the powerless against the powerful, largely through an atextual expansion of the Federal Arbitration Act. As the article notes, "[t]he swift decline of class actions over the last decade is regularly framed as an […]

Why a Wealth Tax is Definitely Constitutional

That's the name of this article by law profs John Brooks and David Gamage. Here is the abstract: Wealth tax reform proposals are playing a major role in the 2020 presidential campaign. However, some opponents of these wealth tax reform proposals have claimed that a wealth tax would be unconstitutional. Other prominent critics have argued […]

NY Times: This Is What Racism Sounds Like in the Banking Industry

Here.  Excerpt: Jimmy Kennedy earned $13 million during his nine-year career as a player in the National Football League. He was the kind of person most banks would be happy to have as a client. But when Mr. Kennedy tried to become a “private client” at JPMorgan Chase, an elite designation that would earn him […]

Dep’t of Education’s continuing efforts to withhold full relief for students defrauded by Corinthian Colleges

NPR reports today on Secretary Betsy DeVos's decision to overrule the decision to forgive the federal student loans of students defrauded by now-defunct Corinthian Colleges and ITT. The story is here. Also today, the Department announced a new methodology for determining whether and if so how much relief to provide to student borrowers defrauded by […]

Supreme Court Addresses Discovery Rule for FDCPA Statute of Limitations

The Supreme Court this morning decided Rotkiske v. Klemm, No. 18-328, holding that absent the application of an equitable doctrine, the FDCPA’s statute of limitations begins to run on the date on which the alleged FDCPA violation occurs, not the date on which the violation is discovered. The question in Rotkiske was whether a discovery […]

Professors who want an electronic version of the forthcoming new edition of our consumer law casebook . . .

by Jeff Sovern . . .  can get it here, by speaking to a West representative, or by clicking this link: https://signin.westacademic.com/Security/Login?redirect=%2fSAML%2fSSOService%3fSAMLRequest%3dfZJdT8IwFIb%252FytL7fQICDSNBiHEJ6sLQC29M6c6gydbOng7w39sNVLyApDc9X%252B%252FT93SCrCprOmvMTq7gswE0TrKIyQeMNgPo3Y3dzXBcuP2ox93RqA%252FuuM8DPrC5MAiI8wYahZIxiTx7SxAbSCQaJo0NBeHYDSM3DNZRRAN7Bt5w8E6chRURkpmucWdMjdT3UWylkN7B5hhnOVSCe1xVfjZ7WvpZ9pKB3gsOxHlQmkPHG5OClQitbsoQxR5%252BI6lWRnFV3guZC7mNSaMlVQwFUskqQGo4bSdTy003pyKkj%252Bt16qYv2Zo4M0TQLeFcSWwq0Gf919XyjxmOfMfkFq5QX5vhMayPxDlWpUTa%252BX%252Bbrz4%252FhkwnbTXtbNYX%252Fbfb2Q8GmV4FnvgXk08yNX22o5JFqkrBv1rbK2auK4Ve2EVE7hZdKW0k1sBFISC3fpalOsw1MGOXZHRjd%252BRPT6r%252Ff9%252F0Gw%253D%253D%26RelayState%3d%252FDocumentDisplay.aspx%253FDocID%253D26704%2526f%253D1%2526navTabIndex%253D1.  More information here.

FTC settles deceptive advertising charges against University of Phoenix

The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it has settled with the University of Phoenix and its parent company, Apollo Education Group, for a record $191 million to resolve FTC charges that the school used deceptive advertisements that falsely touted their relationships and job opportunities with companies such as AT&T, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Twitter, and The […]

Arbel & Shapira article on nudniks and consumer activism

Yonathan A. Arbel of Alabama and Roy Shapira of the Stigler Center, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, have written Theory of the Nudnik: The Future of Consumer Activism and What We Can Do to Stop it, forthcoming in the Vanderbilt Law Review.  Here's the abstract: How do consumers hold sellers accountable and enforce market […]