Our site does its share (we hope!) of calling attention to dangerous and/or exploitative corporate practices, so it's only fair that we also mention when a company seems to be looking out for its consumers. Brian's post earlier today discussed a looming showdown over airbag recalls, with the manufacturer, Takata, refusing NHTSA's demand to broaden […]
With Privacy Basics, the social network site provides a sleek, interactive guide to your privacy options. Whatever you think of Facebook's record on privacy, the new policy seems to reflect a recognition on Facebook's part that their users do care about it. I don't know all the details of how the policy has changed over […]
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently told Takata Corp. to expand its regional defective-airbag recall (in states that have high "absolute" humidity) to vehicles in the entire country. Takata just said no. Most recalls are voluntary — that is, the manufacturer agrees to do what the agency demands. Here, however, NHTSA will have to […]
by Deepak Gupta The Eleventh Circuit issued issued a very comprehensive and well reasoned opinion this week on a hot issue in consumer class-action practice: Can a defendants' attempt to "pick off" a class representative moot the class action? Or, as the opinion puts it: "This case presents the question whether a defendant may moot […]
by Deepak Gupta In today's Los Angeles Times, consumer columnist David Lazarus takes a look at the practice of for-profit debt collectors renting out the seal and letterhead of local California prosecutors — the target of a new class-action lawsuit that our firm filed yesterday in federal court in San Francisco. The practice was condemned in […]
Yesterday, I received an email from the Consumer Protection Branch at the U.S. Department of Justice with links to recent announcements from that office. Here is what DOJ's consumer lawyers were up to in November: November 21, 2014 – United States Files Enforcement Action Against Michigan Sandwich Company and Co-Owner to Stop Distribution of Adulterated […]
Here. An excerpt: Right now, the CFPB is finishing up the second phase of its study, which will hone in on consumers' understanding of arbitration clauses. At that point, it will decide whether it needs to act. If the bureau's findings are anything like those of the law school study, it must. Being stripped of our […]
"Remember the robo-signers, those mortgage loan automatons who authenticated thousands of foreclosure documents over the years without verifying the information they were swearing to? Well, they’re back, in a manner of speaking," reports the Times. Read on.