In Law360, by Andrew Sandler and Benjamin K. Olson Here is an excerpt: It is not entirely clear whether the Dodd-Frank Act or the [Federal Vacancies Reform Act] controls in these circumstances. The one thing that is clear is that there will be real and significant differences in the operation of the CFPB depending on which […]
David Marcus of Arizona has written The History of the Modern Class Action, Part II: Litigation and Legitimacy, 1981-1994, Fordham Law Review (forthcoming 2018). Here is the abstract: The first era of the modern class action began in 1966, with revisions to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. It ended in 1980. […]
Take a look at this image of a cell-phone displaying the registration page for the Uber ride-sharing app: If you enter your credit card information and hit "REGISTER," have you given up your right to bring a class action against Uber if you think it has engaged in illegal price fixing? Yes, says the […]
From The Hill: The public has filed over 20 million comments to the Federal Communications Commission over its plan to scrap the net neutrality rules. It's a record for FCC comments and more than five times the number filed on the agency's previous net neutrality proposal in 2015. The comments on that plan held the […]
We have blogged before about the Third Circuit’s demanding “ascertainability” standard for class certification, which poses a class-action barrier unsupported by the rule. See here, here, and here. The Third Circuit yesterday issued another opinion on the topic, this time in a case brought under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act called City Select Auto Sales, Inc. […]
Uber Technologies, Inc. has agreed to implement a comprehensive privacy program and obtain regular, independent audits to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the ride-sharing company deceived consumers by failing to monitor employee access to consumer personal information and by failing to reasonably secure sensitive consumer data stored in the cloud. In its complaint, the […]
The Washington Post reports: According to Zillow, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has concluded a two-year investigation into the company’s “co-marketing” arrangements that allow mortgage lenders to pay for portions of realty agents’ monthly advertising costs on Zillow websites. In exchange for the money, lenders are presented in agents’ ads to site visitors as sources […]
Financial Times reports: One of the Federal Reserve’s top policymakers has attacked attempts to reverse the post-crisis drive for tougher regulation, calling efforts to loosen constraints on banks “dangerous and extremely short-sighted”. Stanley Fischer, the vice-chairman of the Fed’s board of governors, said in an interview with the Financial Times that 10 years after the […]
After learning that the plaintiff in Spokeo v. Robins won on remand from the Supreme Court, I ran into Spokeo Misspeaks, an article by law prof Lauren Willis. Here's the abstract: Most commentators have critiqued the Supreme Court’s opinion in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins for failing to answer the question presented. But in important ways, the Spokeo opinion […]
Many of our readers will recall the Supreme Court's decision last year in Spokeo v. Robins in which the Court explained, in general terms, what it means for a plaintiff to allege a "concrete" injury sufficient to establish article III standing. The Court then remanded the case to the Ninth Circuit for findings on "concreteness" measured against […]

