by Greg Beck The Ninth Circuit today upheld a district court’s decision approving a class-action settlement against Facebook over the company’s long-defunct “Beacon” program—one of the first of what turned out to be a long string of privacy fiascos for the social media company. With Beacon, Facebook teamed up with Blockbuster to post users’ video […]
David J. Reiss of Brooklyn has written Comment on the Use of Eminent Domain to Restructure Performing Loans. Here is the abstract: There has been a lot of fear-mongering by financial industry trade groups over the widespread use of eminent domain to restructure residential mortgages. While there may be legitimate business reasons to oppose its […]
Arsenic is a potential human carcinogen. Federal regulation limits arsenic in drinking water to 10 parts per billion. (The strictest state-law limit is in New Jersey, where the limit is 5 ppb.) An in-depth study by Consumers Union has found surprisingly high levels of arsenic in foods containing rice. Arsenic gets into food in various […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. An excerpt: A group of Republican state attorneys general has declined to sign cooperation agreements with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, part of an escalating Republican revolt against the agency that began in the U.S. Congress. Richard Cordray, the agency’s director, asked all 50 states in March to sign a memorandum of […]
From Stephen Colbert here and embedded below: The Colbert ReportGet More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
At this blog, we have covered the increasing size of the country's aggregate student loan debt and the question whether college is worth the cost for many people with student loan debt. Catherine Rampell, drawing on work done at the Hamilton Project, says here that college is generally a good investment even for those who take on […]
Sunday's Times reported that the next version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer will include a "Do Not Track" privacy setting as a default. Consumers installing the browser will be presented with the option of switching from the default to permit tracking. Excerpts: But the specter of people opting out of tracking en masse presents a serious […]
In this short video (also embedded below), Justice Scalia says that he is "enraged" by claims that the Supreme Court is "politicized." None of his colleagues, he says, decide cases based on who the President is. He then goes on to explain why justices appointed by Democratic Presidents often vote one way (the non-originalist, non-textual […]
Recently, I posted about eBay's new binding pre-dispute mandatory arbitration clause (which includes a class-action ban). The clause provides a time-limited right to opt out. eBay has designed the opt-out to make it seem like the company is giving consumers a real option to resolve their future disputes with eBay in court, while really trying […]
Nathalie Martin and Ernesto A. Longa, both of New Mexico have written High-Interest Loans and Class: Do Payday and Title Loans Really Serve the Middle Class?, 24 Loyola Consumer Law Reporter 524 (2012). Here's the abstract: This symposium article addresses the question of whether payday and title lenders serve primarily the working poor, as some critics […]