Philadelphia becomes the first major city to pass a tax on sugary drinks.
Martha T. McCluskey of SUNY Buffalo, Thomas Owen McGarity of Texas, Sidney A. Shapiro of Wake Forest, and James Goodwin and Mollie Rosenzweig, both of the Center for Progressive Reform, have written Regulating Forced Arbitration in Consumer Financial Services: Re-Opening the Courthouse Doors to Victimized Consumers. Here's the abstract: Forced arbitration clauses have become almost unavoidable […]
Here (behind paywall). The CFPB is one of the agencies that House Financial Services Chair Jeb Hensarling's bill would ubject to the appropriation process. Excerpt from the article: "There are many things to like about Chairman Hensarling's bill, particularly its tough capital requirements," [former FDCIC head Sheila] Bair said. "However, subjecting the banking agencies to congressional appropriations […]
I blogged a couple of weeks ago about a "country hip-hop" musician who had part of his lawsuit against Facebook, for hosting pages that denigrate him, dismissed under California's anti-SLAPP law but managed to hang onto his claims that Facebook had violated his right of publicity by hosting such pages while serving ads on them. […]
The New York Times applauds the decision and explains why it benefits consumers, here. Politico adds some political perspective, here. The Washington Post explains the net neutrality rule and why it matters, here. Wired reports that AT&T plans to seek Supreme Court review and that congressional Republicans want to block the rule, here.
CNBC reports: Whole Foods was slapped with a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration earlier this month after the FDA found "serious violations" of federal regulations during an inspection of the company's food preparation facility in Massachusetts. FDA inspectors reportedly found various food products, including mushroom quesadillas, chives, beets and couscous that were […]
by Paul Alan Levy In a comment posted yesterday to my blog post last week about an amicus brief that Public Citizen and EFF filed in the First Circuit, Ripoff Report founder Ed Magedson announced that his company is going to modify the browsewrap agreement that it has been imposing on users, whereby the company […]
Here. Excerpt: “[House Financial Services Committee Jeb Hensarling would] gut Dodd-Frank and gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” said Deepak Gupta, a Washington lawyer who previously worked as senior counsel for the watchdog agency. “Jeb Hensarling is a wholly owned subsidiary of the financial services industry.” Too harsh? Not when you consider that, according […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit just released an opinion rejecting a challenge to the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 decision to impose network neutrality rules, which seek to prevent internet service providers from blocking or favoring websites. In short, the background of the case is this: The Commission … promulgated the order […]
The Federal Trade Commission has settled with defendants American Handicapped Inc., American Handicapped and Disadvantaged Workers Inc., and their owner charges that the defendants tricked consumers into buying household products on the false pretext that the proceeds would go to help disabled people. According to the FTC’s complaint, the defendants’ telemarketers cold-called consumers to sell […]