On Friday, the Third Circuit issued a decision in In re Horizon Healthcare Services Inc. Data Breach Litigation. In that case, the plaintiffs sued after two laptops, containing sensitive personal information about them and others, were stolen from health insurer Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc. The plaintiffs alleged willful and negligent violations of the Fair Credit […]
On Friday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, deciding an issue of first impression in the federal courts of appeals, held that a prospective employer violates the Fair Credit Reporting Act by providing a job applicant with a disclosure that “a consumer report may be obtained for employment purposes” that simultaneously serves as a liability […]
Omri Ben-Shahar and Lior Strahilevitz, both of Chicago, have written an introduction to a symposium, Contracting Over Privacy: Introduction, 43 Journal of Legal Studies, No. S2, 2016. Here's the abstract: This short essay introduces papers presented at the symposium Contracting over Privacy, which took place at the Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics at the University of […]
James C. Cooper and Joshua D. Wright, both of George Mason have written The Missing Role of Economics in FTC Privacy Policy, Cambridge Handbook of Consumer Privacy, Jules Polonetsky, Evan Selinger & Omer Tene, eds., Cambridge University Press (2017), Forthcoming. Here's the abstract: The FTC has been in the privacy game for almost twenty years. In […]
Read this note from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau head Richard Cordray to his staff in the wake of the PHH decision.
Here. Here's the beginning and the end: President-elect Donald J. Trump will soon face a stark choice: whether to protect consumers, the ordinary Americans he pledged to defend against a system he criticized as rigged — or to side with that system. * * * If Mr. Trump chooses not to preserve a strong, […]
At SCOTUS blog. The headline: Justices appear divided over treatment of stale claims in consumer bankruptcies
The Washington Post reports: The number of older Americans taking on student debt on behalf of their children and grandchildren has quadrupled in the past decade, with consumers over 60 now holding $66.7 billion in student loan debt, according to a new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The skyrocketing cost of college has placed a […]
Here. Excerpt: Schumer said Trump’s decision to “govern as a hard-right Republican” and possibly replace Cordray breaks his campaign promise to “drain the swamp” by fighting corporate interests on behalf of middle-class Americans. * * * The CFPB is currently finalizing rules on arbitration clauses, payday lending and debt collecting. Warren said the push to […]