by Jeff Sovern The Ninth Circuit reversed the portion of the Facebook, Inc. v. Power Ventures, Inc., case at page 510 of our consumer law casebook, dealing with the CAN-SPAM Act, on the issue of whether the spam was materially misleading. Other portions of the decision, not reprinted in the casebook, were affirmed in part. The decision is reported […]
In a case in federal district court in North Dakota, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed this brief about the D.C. Circuit's decision in PHH Corporation v. CFPB and said this: In considering a separation-of-powers challenge to the Bureau’s structure, the PHH panel announced a new constitutional rule that agencies must be structured as multimember […]
As we noted in a previous post, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently announced new rules, effective October 1, 2017, governing the prepaid debit card industry. As the Washington Post explains, "It’s a big change more than two years in the making that’s expected to bring some basic account protections to its customers, who are […]
Here. Excerpt: Throughout history, Congress has had to step in to make corporations do the right thing. That’s why we have rules about working conditions. That’s why we have a minimum wage. And that’s why the CFPB was established to help with gaps in consumer protection. It was time to do something different. It was […]
by Jeff Sovern I find Twitter a useful source of information on a wide variety of topics. I'm curious to know whom people follow in the area of consumer law. Sources I find helpful (in no particular order): David Dayen, Mathew Bruckner, Financial Services (Dems on the House Financial Services Committee), Consumer Reports, Ted Frank, […]
I've written a short opinion piece for The Hill called "The D.C. Circuit demotes Richard Cordray." It's available here.
by Paul Alan Levy Over the past decade, I have had occasion in several separate cases to help consumers in opposing creative ways in which dentists (Stacy Makhnevich, Mitul Patel, Gordon Austin, and others) have tried to insulate themselves from criticism by their customers. So it's about time I had a chance to help a […]
The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it obtained court orders permanently barring a group of California-based marketers from the deceptive marketing and billing tactics allegedly used to promote their skincare products. Twenty-nine defendants who sold Auravie, Dellure, LéOR Skincare, and Miracle Face Kit branded skincare products have agreed to court orders with the FTC […]
The Federal Trade Commission announced that is charged the operators of a multi-national tech support company with using deceptive pop-up internet ads to scare thousands of consumers into paying hundreds of dollars each for unnecessary technical support services. It obtained a court order temporarily stopping the defendants’ practices and freezing their assets. The defendants commonly […]
NPR's Marketplace reported this morning: In the last few years, there's been such a spike in drug coupons, pharmaceutical companies have barely been able to print them fast enough. Coupons help patients shoulder the cost of expensive prescriptions, but a new paper out in the New England Journal of Medicine finds certain coupons are also […]