Medical debt a significant problem even for the insured

The Times explains: The number of uninsured Americans has fallen by an estimated 15 million since 2013, thanks largely to the Affordable Care Act. But a new survey, the first detailed study of Americans struggling with medical bills, shows that insurance often fails as a safety net. Health plans often require hundreds or thousands of dollars […]

“Takata Emails Show Brash Exchanges About Data Tampering”

…is the headline of this week's NYT story about internal emails at the manufacturer whose airbags have been the subject of a recall after federal regulators recognized that they had the potential to explode and shoot debris at passengers. A taste of the article: “Happy Manipulating!!!” a Takata airbag engineer, Bob Schubert, wrote in one […]

Ninth Circuit upholds Facebook settlement

It's been a while since we discussed the Facebook minors'-privacy case, a class action over Facebook's use of members' images in ads without their consent. Public Citizen represented parents who objected to the proposed settlement because it permitted Facebook to continue using their children's images in ads without parental consent — a practice that violates […]

Busy day at the FTC

The Federal Trade Commission had a busy yesterday, settling charges in three separate matters, as described in these FTC press releases: FTC Secures $4.4 Million From Online Payday Lenders to Settle Deception Charges Dental Practice Software Provider Settles FTC Charges It Misled Customers About Encryption of Patient Data Lumosity to Pay $2 Million to Settle […]

Justice Department sues Volkswagen over emissions scheme

The NYT reports: The Justice Department sued the German automaker Volkswagen in federal court on Monday, saying that the company installed illegal devices in nearly 600,000 diesel engine systems to impair emissions controls, increasing harmful air pollution. But despite a pledge by the Justice Department in September to go after executives responsible for corporate wrongdoing, federal […]

UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CONFERENCE CALL FOR PAPERS

Quoting from the announcement: The Department of Mercantile Law at the University of Pretoria, South Africa will host an international consumer law conference that will focus on relevant developments internationally and nationally in the field of consumer law. The conference theme is "Towards Aligning Consumer Protection in a Global Consumer Market". The following aspects of […]