The State of New York and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (which is not shut down) yesterday settled claims against Sterling Jewelers, based on findings that that the company violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 by opening store credit-card accounts without customer consent; enrolling customers in payment-protection insurance without their consent; and misrepresenting […]
by Jeff Sovern The media has devoted considerable attention to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's joining the House Financial Services Committee. I'm glad she is on the committee–the more members who are not beholden to banks, the better–and I suspect few realize how intelligent Ocasio-Cortez is (taking second place in the Intel competition is an impressive accomplishment). […]
The Yes Men perpetrated (or perhaps only collaborated on) a parody of the Washington Post today, distributing tens of thousands of hard copy editions date-lined May 1, 2019 (making the parody too obvious), but also transmitting email from “send85-proxymailing@washingtonpost.com” domain, which in turn links to a fairly extensive parody web site located at my-washingtonpost.com. A […]
The National Consumer Law Center has a list of federal and state consumer law changes scheduled to take effect in 2019, as well as several changes that were effective in November and December of 2018 that have special relevance in 2019. The list is here.
by Jeff Sovern So reports the NY Times. Excerpt: Vanderbilt University Medical Center, responding to a new Trump administration order to begin posting all hospital prices, listed a charge of $42,569 for a cardiology procedure described as “HC PTC CLOS PAT DUCT ART.” Baptist Health in Miami helpfully told consumers that an “Embolza Protect 5.5” […]
In a post yesterday, Public Citizen reported that the government shutdown is placing crucial consumer, health, and safety protections at serious risk. The agency most impacted in the Consumer Product Safety Commission, where only 20 members of the 550-person staff are at work during the shutdown (working, but not being paid). For information about the […]
by Jeff Sovern Here, in Bloomberg. I'm afraid I didn't find it persuasive. He didn't respond to our argument that state courts often fail to discipline attorneys who violate ethical rules in debt collection matters, as well as other points we made.
The following Federal Trade Commission services are NOT available during the shutdown: National Do Not Call Registry (For consumers) National Do Not Call Registry (For telemarketers) Consumer Sentinel Network (For law enforcement) Complaint Assistant (For filing consumer complaints) Identitytheft.gov (For consumers reporting ID theft) Econsumer.gov (For consumers reporting international complaints) Public comments can be submitted, […]
The Supreme Court today decided Henry Schein Inc. v. Archer and White Sales Inc., which presented the question "whether the Federal Arbitration Act permits a court to decline to enforce an agreement delegating questions of arbitrability to an arbitrator if the court concludes the claim of arbitrability is 'wholly groundless.'” The answer was an unanimous […]
The Supreme Court held argument yesterday in Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Albrecht. Here's the (loaded) question presented in Merck: Whether a state-law failure-to-warn claim is pre-empted when the Food and Drug Administration rejected the drug manufacturer's proposal to warn about the risk after being provided with the relevant scientific data, or whether such a […]