CFPB acts against student financial aid scam

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed a complaint seeking to halt a nationwide student financial aid scam that allegedly ripped off tens of thousands of students and families across the country by illegally charging millions of dollars in fees for sham financial services. The complaint names as defendants Student Financial Resource Center and College […]

Default judgment entered against Corinthian Colleges for engaging in predatory lending scheme

In September 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Corinthian Colleges, Inc., alleging that Corinthian engaged in a predatory lending scheme. This week, a federal court entered a final default judgment against Corinthian. The CFPB's press release explains: The Bureau’s lawsuit against Corinthian alleged that the company lured tens of thousands of students into taking […]

Reuters expose on OIRA and the costs of “braking the rules”

In an illuminating piece today entitled "How a small White House agency stalls life-saving regulations," Reuters explains how regulatory delay — chiefly on the part of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs — costs lives. The examples cited, including worker-safety, environmental protection, and auto-safety rules, are poignant and powerful. (One example highlighted […]

“Payday Loans Cost the Poor Billions, and There’s an Easy Fix”

In an op-ed in today's New York Times, Yale sociology professor Frederick Wherry argues that "[t]he United States government could put billions of dollars back into the pockets of [pay-day loan borrowers] by fixing a small regulatory problem and allowing banks to get into the business of small loans." The op-ed it here.

CFPB monthly complaint snapshot

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday released its latest monthly consumer complaints snapshot, which highlights credit card complaints. Consumers’ most frequent credit card-related complaints were about incurring late fees and credit report problems due to confusing payment processing schedules and difficulty disputing bill inaccuracies. This month’s snapshot also highlights trends seen in complaints coming from […]

The rise in food labeling litigation

Law prof Nicole Negowetti has written Food Labeling Litigation: Exposing Gaps in the FDA's Resources and Regulatory Authority. Here is the abstract: Since 2011, consumer advocacy groups and plaintiffs have filed more than 150 food labeling class action lawsuits against food and beverage companies. According to a recent study, the number of these consumer protection class […]

Copyright exemption for research on cars

The Hill reports: The Librarian of Congress on Tuesday clarified that researchers can tinker with software embedded in cars to investigate security flaws without running afoul of copyright law.  The decision was handed down from the Copyright Office as part of a triennial review that exempts certain activity from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA), […]

Public Citizen reports on “The Fiction of the ‘No-Injury’ Class Action”

An overview, from Public Citizen's press release: Corporations and their lawyers are pushing the idea that consumers who were duped by misrepresentations into buying products or overpaying for products have suffered “no injury.” The new report (PDF), “The Fiction of the ‘No-Injury’ Class Action,” examines that claim, testing its validity as a matter of fact […]