More consumers than ever report falling prey to romance scammers, according to new Federal Trade Commission data that show consumers reported losing a record $304 million to the scams last year. A newly released data spotlight shows that the amount consumers reported losing to romance scammers is up about 50 percent since 2019, and has increased […]
by Paul Alan Levy Our latest case about the right to speak anonymously is in federal court in Chicago, flowing from a dispute between a prominent vlogger named Cristina Villegas and a plastic surgeon named David Shifrin who, Villegas complained, “botched my nose job.” Villegas posted a 23-minute-long YouTube video which recounts the inadequacies that […]
Charlotte Haendler and Rawley Heimer, both of Boston College's Department of Finance, have written The Financial Restitution Gap in Consumer Finance: Insights from Complaints Filed with the CFPB. Here's the abstract: Consumers seek restitution for disputed financial services by filing complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). We find that filings from low-socioeconomic (i.e., low-income […]
The Conference on Consumer Finance Law and the Program on Financial Regulation & Technology at George Mason University’s Scalia Law School held a webinar recently titled “New Directions for Consumer Finance Law. An Insider’s Look at the Report of the CFPB’s Taskforce.” The speakers included Taskforce members Jean Noonan, Todd Zywicki and William McLeod.
Law profs Stephen Burbank and Sean Farhang have written Class Certification in the U.S. Courts of Appeals: A Longitudinal Study. Here is the abstract: There is a vast literature on the modern class action, but little of it is informed by systematic empirical data. Mindful both that there have been few Supreme Court class certification […]
by Paul Alan Levy Last month, a Fells Point restaurant was able to use an apparently baseless threat of defamation litigation to secure a vote renewing its liquor license by the liquor control board despite considerable neighborhood complaints. Baltimore attorney Scott Marder apparently a demand letter to every one of the 15 neighbors who objected, […]
Erik Durbin and Charles J. Romeo, both of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, have written The Economics of Debt Collection, with Attention to the Issue of Salience of Collections at the Time Credit Is Granted, 16 Journal of Credit Risk (2020). Here is the abstract: This paper considers the role of policies that protect consumers from […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. Both written and audio versions of the article are available. The article also reports on scam call centers overseas. I hope this is something the Biden administration moves on aggressively in its foreign policy.
by Jeff Sovern My new article is now up on SSRN: Six Scandals: Why We Need Consumer Protection Laws Instead of Just Markets. Here' is the abstract: Markets are powerful mechanisms for serving consumers. Some critics of regulation have suggested that markets also provide consumer protection: for example, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman said “Consumers […]
Yonathan A. Arbel of Alabama and Shmuel I. Becher of Victoria University of Wellington have written Contracts in the Age of Smart Readers. Here's the abstract: What does it mean to have machines that can read, explain, and evaluate contracts? Recent advances in machine learning have led to a fundamental breakthrough in machine language models, auguring […]