FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is quitting after about 2 years on the job

Here is the opening of the New York Times article on Gottlieb's resignation: Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, known for his aggressive efforts to regulate the tobacco and e-cigarette industries, said on Tuesday that he would resign at the end of the month.The reason he gave was family and his […]

The Centers for Disease Control is investigating the dangers of electric scooters

Electric scooters have simply showed up on the streets, placed there by profit-seeking companies, largely or entirely unregulated. Read this story by Sharon Jayson concerning an investigation into the large number of injuries caused by e-scooters currently underway at the Centers for Disease Control. 

Proving up torts involving self-driving cars via inference

Bryan Casey has written Robot Ipsa Loquitur. Here is the abstract: Accidents are becoming automated. From self-driving cars to self-flying drones, robots are increasingly colliding with the world. And one of the most pressing questions raised by these technologies — indeed, one of the great regulatory challenges of the coming era — is how the law […]

Credit bureau reform

Last week, the National Consumer Law Center's Chi Chi Wu testified before the House Financial Services Committee on continuing serious problems plaguing the credit reporting industry, including its failure to ensure the accuracy of credit reports. Among other things, the testimony identified these concerns: unacceptable error rates and the myriad types of systemic inaccuracies in […]

Inside the payday-loan industry’s efforts to ditch the CFPB’s payday lending rules

Read this article by Renae Merle entitled How a payday lending industry insider tilted academic research in its favor. It explains how payday-loan industry lobbyists bought (and sometimes wrote) research from supposedly independent academics purporting to show that payday loans don't harm consumers. Oh, and by the way, the payday-loan industry's lobby group "held its 2018 […]

Financial institutions report widespread elder financial abuse

The CFPB has released a report on financial exploitation of the elderly by people ranging from offshore scammers to family members. The report compiles information from Suspicious Activity Reports submitted by banks, credit unions, casinos, and other financial services providers. The 180,000 elder financial exploitation SARs reviewed for the report were submitted from 2013 to […]

FTC case challenges fake paid reviews on Amazon

The Federal Trade Commission announced its first case challenging a marketer’s use of fake paid reviews on an independent retail website. In a settlement announced at the same time, Cure Encapsulations and its owner resolved allegations that they made false and unsubstantiated claims for their garcinia cambogia weight-loss supplement and that they paid a third-party […]