Consumer Federation of America has announced that long-time consumer advocate Jack Gillis is retiring in January. Here is the press release: After 38 years with the Consumer Federation of America, long-time consumer and auto safety advocate, Jack Gillis, will be retiring as CFA’s Executive Director in January 2022. Gillis has been with CFA since 1983, […]
On October 21, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered six large technology companies that operate payments systems in the United States — Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Square, and PayPal — to provide information about certain of their business practices. The agency seeks the information to help it better understand how these companies use personal payments […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Justice, in cooperation with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, have entered into a settlement to resolve allegations of redlining by Trustmark National Bank. The CFPB and DOJ allege that Trustmark discriminated against Black and Hispanic neighborhoods by deliberately not marketing, offering, or originating home […]
A recent report by the Federal Trade Commission staff shows that many internet service providers (ISPs) collect far more data about their customers than many consumers may expect — including access to their Internet traffic and real-time location data — while failing to offer consumers meaningful choices about how they may use the data. Focusing […]
Victoria Barnes of the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory has written Anne Fleming’s History of Law and Consumer Finance, 22 Enterprise & Society 316 (2021). Here's the abstract: This article has teased out Anne Flemings’s interests and the overarching themes in her research. It shows how these themes and interests influenced […]
by Paul Alan Levy In releasing documents electronically pursuant to a public records request, a local government body in New Jersey made a rookie error: using software (presumably Word) to perform redactions in a manner that was easily undone when the requester opened the provided PDF documents using his own device. The documents revealed some […]
by Steve Gardner Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit issued an excellent opinion on the issue of preemption of state law claims for deception involving foods regulated by USDA. Cohen v. ConAgra Brands, Inc. Robert Cohen sued ConAgra for violations of California consumer laws. As the Court noted: Cohen began purchasing various frozen chicken products such as […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, PayPal, and Square to turn over information on their payment system plans. The orders look like this. The agency's press release begins this way: Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a series of orders to collect information on the business practices of […]
by Paul Alan Levy Our latest effort to defend the right to speak anonymously about issues of public concern brings us up against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Last summer, Kennedy spoke at an August 29 rally convened by the German far right to protest government restrictions aimed at corralling the COVID pandemic. Kennedy was, apparently, […]
The great consumer-justice lawyers at the National Consumer Law Center are hiring a lawyer to work on predatory lending and banking issues. The job announcement is here.