The Department of Justice this week charged a payday lender with conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, and mail fraud, and aiding and abetting mail fraud. Although there is even more, here is the gist of the government's case: According to the […]
The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy rights group, complained to the Federal Trade Commission on Monday about a new Uber new policy that gives it the right to track users when they are not currently using the Uber app.The privacy policy is scheduled to go into effect on July 15. USA Today explains: Under […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released its latest supervision report outlining the illegal practices uncovered by the CFPB in the first four months of 2015. It found problems with • dual-tracking at mortgage servicers that could mislead consumers to believe their trial modifications were canceled, • lack of quality control measures at consumer reporting […]
Amy Schmitz of Colorado has written Secret Consumer Scores and Segmentations: Separating Consumer 'Haves' from 'Have-Nots', Michigan State Law Review, p. 1411 (2014). Here is the abstract: “Big Data” is big business. Data brokers profit by tracking consumers’ information and behavior both on- and offline and using this collected data to assign consumers evaluative scores […]
David Savage at the LA Times has this article quickly summarizing the big Supreme Court cases still pending this Term, as well as those recently decided.
Ahmed E. Taha of Pepperdine has written Selling the Outlier, forthcoming in the Journal of Corporation Law. Here is the abstract: Advertisements for products ranging from weight-loss programs to mutual funds regularly feature the results of people who have used the product. However, these advertisements often present the results only of people who had an atypically […]
by Paul Alan Levy Now that a federal court gag order against it has been lifted, Reason Magazine has now published its own comments, and a number of other bloggers have been writing as well, about Reason’s experience with a grand jury subpoena seeking to identify anonymous online commenters. In response to an article about […]
by Paul Alan Levy In a decision issued yesterday in Hadley v. Subscriber Doe a/k/a Fuboy, the Illinois Supreme Court affirmed lower court rulings that an anonymous commenter who responded to a local newspaper article by calling a local politician a “Sandusky waiting to be exposed,” making particular reference to the fact that he could […]
Rena I. Steinzor of Maryland and the Center for Progressive Reform has written (Still) 'Unsafe at Any Speed': Why Not Jail for Auto Executives? Harvard Law & Policy Review (Forthcoming). Here's the abstract: Americans can be forgiven for wondering what has gone so drastically wrong with the companies that sell automobiles. In 2014, 64 million, […]
Interpreting the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday issued a ruling addressing robocalls made to cell phones. The FCC's ruling provide: • Service providers can offer robocall-blocking technologies to consumers and implement market-based solutions that consumers can use to stop unwanted robocalls. • Consumers have the right to revoke their consent […]