The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced yesterday the "Payback Playbook"—a set of prototype disclosures that outline a path to affordable payments for borrowers trying to avoid student debt distress. The CFPB explained that Payback Playbook provides borrowers with personalized information about their repayment options from loan servicers so they can secure a monthly payment they […]
by Jeff Sovern Earlier this month, Allison posted a link to a story about the PHH case in which the D.C Circuit heard arguments about whether the CFPB's structure is constitutional (CFPB Monitor reports on the oral argument here). The Wall Street Journal has now run an editorial (behind a paywall) arguing that the Bureau […]
A thoughtful article in the New York Times Magazine this week posits that TV has largely shifted from portraying working class and middle class struggles (from mid-century to the early 90s) to shows largely focused on hanging out and that exist in a classless vacuum (for the past twenty years). As a result, blue collar workers […]
A lot is going on in yesterday's decision in FTC v. Amazon, 2016 WL 1643973 (W.D. Wash. Apr. 26, 2016) — some excellent and some troubling. First, the good news. A Seattle district court held that Amazon engaged in unfair or deceptive practices when it embedded within its apps options to take actions that cost real […]
Check out this fascinating report in Wired last week, which explains how Cornell Tech researchers cracked the code to shortened URLs from Microsoft and Google and as a result were about to figure out personal information about specific individuals: "By guessing at shortened URLs until they found working ones, the researchers say that they could have […]
We received the following announcement: The University of Amsterdam's Institute for Information Law (IViR) is accepting applications for its fourth annual Summer Course on Privacy Law and Policy which will be held from July 4-8, 2016, The course focuses on privacy law and policy related to the internet, electronic communications, and online and social media. It explores both the […]
A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a link between exposure to e-cigarette advertisements and the use of e-cigarettes by middle and high school students. The study is the first to assess the link between exposure to e-cigarette advertising and current e-cigarette use, and it concludes that efforts to reduce […]
by Jeff Sovern Critics of consumer protection regulation routinely assert that such regulation reduces access to credit and increases consumer costs. For example, here is what Todd Zywicki wrote in his recent testimony before the Senate Banking Committee (footnote omitted): By imposing a regulatory regime that substitutes the judgment of bureaucrats for consumer decisions, Dodd-Frank […]
Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered the debt collection law firm Pressler & Pressler, LLP, two principal partners, and New Century Financial Services, Inc., a debt buyer, to stop churning out unfair and deceptive debt collection lawsuits based on flimsy or nonexistent evidence. The consent orders bar the companies and individuals from illegal practices […]
Listen to NPR's report last week, here.