A federal judge has held Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in contempt for violating an order to stop collecting loan payments from former Corinthian Colleges students.The judge imposed a $100,000 fine on the Education Department for violating a preliminary injunction; the money will be used to compensate the 16,000 people harmed by the federal agency’s actions. […]
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that arbitrators have an obligation to disclose their financial interests in the cases before them. In a 2-1 decision in Monster Energy v. City Beverages, the court vacated a $3 million JAMS arbitration award, holding the award cannot stand because a purportedly neutral JAMS arbitrator failed […]
The Wall Street Journal reports that a “senior student-loan official in the Trump administration said he would resign Thursday and endorse canceling most of the nation’s outstanding student debt, calling the student-loan system ‘fundamentally broken.'” “Wayne Johnson was appointed in 2017 by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as chief operating officer of the Office of Federal […]
We received the following announcement: The Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice at Berkeley Law is looking for a staff attorney/research fellow to spearhead its work for consumer and economic justice in courts and regulatory agencies. If you know anyone who might be interested in joining the fight – or if you are that […]
The Federal Trade Commission today charged the developer of three "stalking" apps with violating consumer's privacy and creating security vulnerabilities. The apps allowed purchasers to monitor a user's GPS location, text messages, and photos without the knowledge of the user. The FTC's complaint was announced concurrently with a consent order under which Retina X Studios […]
Save the Date Call for Papers and Speakers Teaching Consumer Law Conference – Santa Fe, New Mexico, 29 & 30 May 2020 Teaching Consumer Law: Back to Basics? The Center for Consumer Law at the University of Houston Law Center, in cooperation with the University of New Mexico School of Law, is organizing its twelfth […]
The Federal Trade Commission has issued the National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for Fiscal Year 2019. The Data Book contains information about the DNC Registry from October 1, 2018, to September 30, 2019. It provides information on robocall complaints, the types of calls consumers reported to the FTC, and a complete state-by-state analysis. […]
The Supreme Court today issued orders stemming from this morning's conference in which the Justices considered what new cases to take up. Among those cases is Seila Law v. CFPB, which raises the question of the constitutionality of the placing the agency under a director protected against removal at will by the President. The Court […]
The CFPB announced last Friday the planned formation of a "Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law." According to the Bureau, "[t]he taskforce will examine the existing legal and regulatory environment facing consumers and financial services providers and report recommendations on ways to improve and strengthen consumer financial laws and regulations to CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger." […]
Jessica LaVoice and Domonkos F. Vamossy, both of the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Economics, have written Racial Disparities in Debt Collection. Here is the abstract: A distinct set of disadvantages experienced by black Americans increases their likelihood of experiencing negative financial shocks, decreases their ability to mitigate the impact of such shocks, and ultimately […]