By Adina Rosenbaum, Public Citizen This morning, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Northwest v. Ginsberg, holding that the Airline Deregulation Act (ADA) preempts Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg’s claim that Northwest breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing when it terminated his frequent flyer program membership. Rabbi Ginsberg was a long-standing […]
After the Supreme Court (in)famously reversed class certification in the nationwide Dukes v. Walmart employment discrimination class action in 2011, smaller class actions have gone forward in its place in various parts of the country. The case against Walmart in Texas was dismissed by the district court based on the statute of limitations. This week, […]
That's what the Court did today, by a 5-4 vote, in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. The main opinion was written by Chief Justice Roberts. Justice Thomas, concurring in the judgment, would have gone further and overruled Buckley v. Valeo, which, among other things, upheld certain individual limits on contributions to particular candidates. No surprise […]
No surprise, in view of past Republican attempts to cripple the CFPB by doing just that, but still an unfortunate proposal. The Hill has the story here.
by Jeff Sovern Last week, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on Alternative Financial Products. The American Banker account is here, albeit behind a paywall. I found most interesting the payday lending discussion, and in particular the arguments made against regulation. At one point, a Senator (I think Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania), questioned a witness, Stephanie […]
“The Federal Trade Commission has moved to close down a multi-million dollar telemarketing fraud that targeted U.S. seniors across the nation, scamming tens of thousands of consumers,” according to an FTC press release. The defendants used a telemarketing boiler room in Canada … to cold-call seniors claiming to sell fraud protection, legal protection, and pharmaceutical […]
No, explains the Eleventh Circuit, reversing summary judgment against a consumer who was hounded by State Farm with 327 autodialed calls over a span of six months in an attempt to collect somebody else's debt. The plaintiff told State Farm to stop calling. Even if the FDCPA required him to do so in writing, the […]
Paul Harrison, Marta Massi & Kathryn Chalmers have written Beyond Door-to-Door: The Implications of Invited In-Home Selling, 48 J. Consumer Affairs 195 (2014). Here is the abstract: Over the past 20 years, consumer groups and policymakers have expressed concerns about the high-pressure selling techniques used during in-home selling, often highlighting the distinction between typical door-to-door […]
When an essential consumer safety rule is issued after a prolonged delay, do you cheer the life-saving rule, or bemoan the delay? For me, some of each. We've posted before about the problem of deadly "backover" crashes (collisions in which a vehicle moving in reverse strikes a person behind the vehicle, whom the driver can't […]
I don't like repeating posts, but an exception is warranted here. I am reproducing Jeff Sovern's post about the "Making the fine print fair" conference set for this Friday, April 4, at Georgetown law. Note that the conference is free and open to the public. So, if you are in D.C. on Friday, feel free to […]