by Jeff Sovern Here. Excerpt: The bill as amended lowers the bureau’s budget cap by $9 million over 10 years. The cap is set at 618.7 million for fiscal year 2015. Given that the law already caps the bureau’s funding and allows increases it only in line with the government’s employment cost index, the lower […]
FICO — the business analytics company that calculates everyone's credit score — has agreed to provide free credit scores to consumers who seek counseling through non-profit credit counseling organizations. FICO noted that it was influenced by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which believes that credit counselors' work is more effective when the counselor and consumer […]
The recent announcement of an FTC settlement with a company called AmeriFreight that was paying customers to write reviews, then trolling for new customers by pointing to its favorable online ratings, brings to mind the controversy a few years ago about the FTC's amendments of its advertising guidelines to apply to misleading use of online […]
In a recent interview on The Daily Show, the Senator explains how students and large financial institutions are treated differently when it comes to being able to get out of high interest rates -– and why she thinks the laws are the way they are (spoiler alert: it’s not because it’s a good idea). Watch […]
From the Federal Trade Commission's press release: A national mortgage servicing company will pay $63 million to resolve Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau charges that it harmed homeowners with illegal loan servicing and debt collection practices. The FTC and CFPB allege that Green Tree Servicing LLC made illegal and abusive debt collection […]
Senators Feinstein (D-CA) and Collins (R-ME) have introduced a bill entitled Personal Care Products Safety Act, which would gives the FDA significantly more authority over cosmetics and personal care products, including the authority to order recalls of dangerous products. The bill would require the FDA to review chemicals used in these products and to provide […]
In last week's decision Byrd v. Aaron's, Inc., a unanimous panel of the Third Circuit reversed a district court's decision to deny class certification on ascertainability grounds. (You'll recall that ascertainability is the court-developed notion that a class must show an administratively feasible means of identifying class members; the test is particularly strict and plaintiff-unfriendly […]
…is the question analysis by this thoughtful piece in Vox (with an embedded clip from The West Wing, for those of you feeling nostalgic for a more harmonious time in government, however fictional). The occasion for the discussion is Sen. Rand Paul’s proposal to make college completely tax deductible. See whom that would help most, […]
John Oliver has this marvelously clear and detailed report on modern-day debtors’ prisons and how the combination of poor public policy, municipalities’ reliance on fines for their budgets, and private probation companies yields a legal system in which a minor infraction can ruin your life if you don’t have the money to pay the fine. […]
by Paul Alan Levy I have blogged several times (for example here and here) about the efforts of Hadeed Carpet Cleaning to compel Yelp to comply with a Virginia subpoena to identify seven consumers who posted critical reviews on Yelp. Our principal concern about the subpoenas was Hadeed did not claim that the gist of […]