The Washington Post yesterday published an eye-opening expose concerning the practice of buying monetary settlements for lead poisoning from the victims for a fraction of what they are worth — as little as 9 cents on the dollar. As the Post documents, the victims are often cash-strapped, have little education and sometimes mental disabilities, and […]
The FTC sued Wyndham Worldwide (the company that operates Wyndham Hotels) for unfair and deceptive trade practices under the FTCA after Wyndham sustained data breaches in 2008 and 2009 leading to more than $10.5 million in fraudulent charges to consumers. The FTC charged that Wyndham's security was deficient and its policies misled consumers. Yesterday, in […]
Guest Post by Gregory Gauthier: Late last week, many media outlets drew attention to broadly-worded terms in Spotify’s new privacy policy. Although Spotify’s CEO later explained the intent of the changes to the privacy policy, another change to Spotify’s terms has yet to be explained by Spotify or discussed by the media. The change, which […]
by Paul Alan Levy This spring I reported on a decision of the Virginia Supreme Court that overturned a contempt citation against Yelp for honoring its users First Amendment right to post pseudonymous criticisms of a Virginia merchant called Hadeed Carpet Cleaning, because Hadeed refused to present any evidence that the reviewers had made any […]
We've covered before the ongoing fight over employers' responsibility to provide insurance that covers contraception, a mandate that some employers argue violates their religious beliefs. The opening of the argument in the Solicitor General's brief in opposition to certiorari in Priests for Life v. HHS summarizes the state of the law as the Court considers whether […]
Richard Frankel of Drexel has written Concepcion and Mis-Concepcion: Why Unconscionability Survives the Supreme Court's Arbitration Jurisprudence, 17 Journal of Dispute Resolution. Here is the abstract: States have long relied on the doctrines of unconscionability and public policy to protect individuals against unfair terms in mandatory arbitration provisions. The Supreme Court recently struck a blow […]
In a split decision Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down a portion of an SEC rule requiring publicly traded companies to disclose whether their products “have not been found to be ‘DRC conflict free’”—a term defined to mean that they do not […]
As NPR reports, a number of presidential candidates have been proposing, to enthusiastic reception, that students be permitted to refinance their student debt in the same manner mortgage borrowers can refinance their home loans. But is this the best policy? In particular, is it a policy that helps the student borrowers who are struggling the […]
We've mentioned before that Alaska is among the latest states to join a slow but steady trend toward accepting the Medicaid expansion enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act but rendered optional by the Supreme Court's 2012 ruling on the constitutionality of the law. Unable to block the governor's decision to accept the Medicaid […]
The Washington Post reports: The Obama administration said Wednesday it will overhaul the loan forgiveness process for students who believe they have been defrauded by their colleges, in light of the collapse of controversial for-profit Corinthian Colleges. Students can apply to have their federal loans discharged if they can prove a school used illegal or deceptive tactics in violation […]