The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today issued a statement of principles on enforcement of its "unfair competition" authority under section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Four commissioners voted for the statement, and one commissioner dissented. Go here to get all of the agency's info on the topic. The agency summarized its statement as follows: […]
We’ve discussed several times (see for instance here and here) an issue that’s been percolating in the courts of appeals the last few years and which has been taken up by the Supreme Court for the coming Term in the case of Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez: whether a defendant’s offer of judgment for complete relief under […]
…pretty much sums it up. This policy, announced last week, will hopefully spur other employers toward better policies. Reuters has the story, which notes that the national norm for paid parental leave is only a month.
by Jeff Sovern The American Bar Association's Business Law Section Consumer Financial Services Committee held a webinar earlier today in which the topic was listed as "The CFPB Begins Arbitration Rulemaking, But Its Own Study Shows that Arbitration Benefits Consumers." The sole speakers, other than the moderator, were Ballard Spahr's Alan Kaplinsky and Mark Levin. […]
The Federal Communications Commission announced a $2.96 million fine against Travel Club Marketing, Inc., related companies, and the companies’ owner, for making at least 185 unsolicited robocalls. The calls were prerecorded advertising calls to consumers who had not consented to the robocalls; the majority of the consumers had listed their telephone number on the national […]
The Federal Trade Commission announced today: The Federal Trade Commission has charged a data broker operation with illegally selling payday loan applicants’ financial information to a scam operation that took millions of dollars from consumers by debiting their bank accounts and charging their credit cards without their consent. According to the FTC’s complaint, the data […]
A federal judge on Friday struck down New York City’s Responsible Banking Act, holding the city preempted by state and federal banking laws. The ordinance required deposit banks to disclose information about how the banks serve low-income neighborhoods. Under the ordinance, the information would be published and factor into whether banks would remain eligible to hold […]
Read this analysis by Gallup. Not surprisingly, the uninsured rates are dropping in states that opted for the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion. Perhaps more surprising is that states that have set up their own health-care exchanges (or have state-federal partnerships), as opposed to states that depend on the federal exchange, generally are the states […]
The Wall Street Journal reports: The Federal Trade Commission in its 100-year history has never agreed on formal principles for policing companies engaged in “unfair” competition. That looks set to change. Members of the FTC are close to a bipartisan agreement to lay out for the first time how the commission views its authority to […]
…is the title of this eye-opening piece in the Washington Post about what the FTC is seeking to learn from hackers about data privacy. As the Post reports, FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny and the agency's chief technologist Ashkan Soltani are in Las Vegas this week to talk with hackers and security researchers attending the Black Hat […]