by Jeff Sovern More from The Hill here. Excerpt: Trump has tapped tech experts Jeff Eisenach and Mark Jamison, two critics of net neutrality, to head his transition team for the Federal Communications Commission. So far, Trump's appointments in consumer protection positions seem to oppose consumer protection.
The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) as amended by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, requires EPA to publish by December 19, 2016, a list of chemicals for review. Today, EPA announced the first ten chemicals it will evaluate for potential risks to human health and the environment under TSCA.The […]
In the wake of the Wells Fargo scandal, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued a bulletin warning banks that creating incentives for employees and service providers to meet sales and other business goals can lead to consumer harm. "Tying bonuses or employment status to unrealistic sales goals or to the terms of transactions may […]
Law prof David Noll has written The CFPB's Arbitration Rule: The Road Ahead. Here is the abstract: In May 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that it intended to exercise its authority under the Dodd-Frank Act to bar consumer financial companies from invoking pre-dispute arbitration agreements to block consumer class actions. This comment considers the […]
by Jeff Sovern President-Elect Trump has named former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins his "landing team" member for the CFPB, among other federal agencies. Atkins has a history of opposing regulation and supporting business. Politico has a piece about him titled Trump team member slams unions, activists in favor of businesses. Excerpt: “While Paul is in […]
Former FTC Commissioner Joshua D. Wright of George Mason has written Federalism and the Rise of State Consumer Protection Law in the United States, in The Law and Economics of Federalism, Jonathan Klick, ed., Edward Elgar Publishing, Forthcoming. Here's the abstract: Starting in the 1960s, individual states began to adopt and enforce Consumer Protection Acts […]
by Jeff Sovern The Journal's editorial, behind a paywall, is here. Excerpt: By all rights the [Consumer Financial Protection] bureau should be killed, and we’re told the Trump transition team is considering this and other options. The political problem is that killing the bureau would probably require 60 Senate votes, and Democrats would be able […]
So reports my fellow blogger Deepak Gupta on Twitter. This is in the PHH case in which the panel ruled that the CFPB was unconstitutional unless the President could fire the Bureau's director without cause. The response is due in early December, well before the shift in administrations.
Here (behind paywall). Excerpt: Brandon Wilson is a former armed robber who, after serving roughly a decade in prison, reinvented himself as a successful debt broker. * * * * * * [Wilson] explained it: “Part of the package you get of being my business associate or my friend is that I’m gonna protect you […]
by Jeff Sovern Here is the report in the NY Times (behind a paywall). Wells filed its arbitration motion on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. So Wells is using a secret system for adjudicating claims, agreed to by consumers who didn't understand what arbitration clauses mean, and invoked it at a time when people are less likely […]