FTC Annual Report on Refunds to Consumers

The Federal Trade Commission annual Report on Refunds to Consumers tallies the total refunds to consumers in 2023 from FTC enforcement actions at more than $324 million. The report provides a breakdown of the total amount refunded by the FTC nationally, as well as the amount mailed to each state, and also includes a list […]

The Biden-Trump debate and consumer protection

Will consumer protection come up during the debate? My guess is not. It seems unlikely that a moderator or President Trump would raise it. I could see President Biden bringing up junk fees, as he has called for their regulation, in response to a question, though I am not expecting it. The headline issues have […]

Strahilevitz & Liu paper offers theory for Article III standing in data breach cases

Lior Strahilevitz of Chicago and Lisa Yao Liu of the Columbia Business School have written Cash Substitution and Deferred Consumption as Data Breach Harms. Here’s the abstract: Federal courts have long been divided over whether consumers whose data are breached suffer an “injury in fact” that gives them standing to sue under Article III of the […]

Solove & Hartzog: The Failure of Data Security Law

Daniel J. Solove of George Washington Woodrow Hartzog of Boston University and the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society have posted on SSRN a chapter from their book, Breached! Why Data Security Law Fails and How to Improve It. The chapter is titled The Failure of Data Security Law. Here’s the abstract: In […]

CFPB anticipates effective date of long-delayed predatory lending protections

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is ready to take on predatory lending again. After the payday lenders association delayed a rule for years with a lawsuit challenging the regulation as well as the bureau’s constitutionality – a challenge the payday loan industry recently lost before the Supreme Court – the CFPB is bringing payday protections […]

FTC sues Adobe for Making Subscriptions Too Hard to Cancel

Today, the FTC filed a lawsuit against in the Northern District of California against Adobe, makers of Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, and others, for practices in connection with its “Annual, Paid Monthly” subscription plan. The complaint alleges violations of the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act. From the FTC’s press release: [W]hen consumers purchase a subscription through the […]

Call for submissions on the FDA

Here is the first part of the call for submissions: The Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI) is pleased to solicit abstracts for the Food and Drug Law Journal 2024 Symposium, “From Past to Progress: Envisioning the Future of FDA Law and Regulation.” The Symposium will celebrate FDLI’s 75th Anniversary and its enduring contributions to the field […]

After fighting to make the CFPB less independent, conservatives complain that it’s not independent

As most of you know, conservatives and the industry regularly complain about what they call the Bureau’s lack of accountability. Their previous efforts to strip away the CFPB’s independence resulted in the Seila Law decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the president had to be able to fire the CFPB director without cause, […]