Here. Excerpt: [L]ast month the Federal Trade Commission made it easier for cars to be billed as “certified,” even if they were under recall and hadn’t been fixed yet. * * * Buyers who wonder how safe it is to drive with a recalled Takata airbag and check the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website […]
Here. Excerpt: The basic story is that if it's possible to make lots of money by using deceptive contracts to ripoff consumers, then many very talented and hard-working people will spend their time developing schemes to ripoff consumers. Instead of doing things that contribute to consumers' well-being (e.g. developing better products), these people will be […]
by Paul Alan Levy Shiva Ayyadurai is a computer scientist who insists that it was he who, as a child prodigy, invented email. Although his claim has been widely derided by many of the major figures who were party to the technological advances that created the Internet as well as systems of direct communication such as […]
by Jeff Sovern It's scheduled for February 8, 2017, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm ET. More information here. Alan Kaplinsky will moderate. Some of the questions we hope to address: * What might prevent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray from serving out his full term which expires in July 2018 […]
by Jeff Sovern The article is called The Quiet GOP Campaign Against Government Regulation. The whole piece is worth reading, but here's an excerpt: The shorter and easier-to-read of the two bills is called the “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2017,” or REINS Act, which passed the House in early […]
by Jeff Sovern Here, in Morning Money. Excerpt: THE POLITICS of firing Cordray would be tough for Trump. He could argue that the CFPB is an unaccountable agency lead by a too-powerful single director. Banking groups, especially those representing smaller and midsize institutions, would be would be thrilled. But the CFPB polls pretty highly and […]
Under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and the State of Florida, the operators of an alleged student debt relief and credit repair scam will be banned from those lines of business. The stipulated final order resolves charges the FTC and the State of Florida brought in April 2016, against Chastity Valdes and her […]
The Federal Trade Commission has released Cross-Device Tracking: An FTC Staff Report that describes the technology used to track consumers across multiple Internet-connected devices, the benefits and challenges associated with it, and industry efforts to address those challenges. The report concludes by making recommendations to industry about how to apply traditional principles like transparency, choice, […]
Here, in The Intercept. Excerpt: “Did OneWest ‘robo-sign’ documents relating to foreclosures and evictions?” Sen. Bob Casey, D-Penn., asked [Treasury Secretary Nominee Steven] Mnuchin as a “question for the record”. Mnuchin replied that “OneWest Bank did not ‘robo-sign’ documents * * * [Dayan reports on] a 2011 consent order issued by the federal Office of […]
A statement appears on the FTC website here.