The Guardian reports: “Opioid manufacturers and other major corporations are pushing legislation to strip away state laws that have been used to sue the pharmaceutical industry for hundreds of millions of dollars over the worst drug epidemic in US history. The influential rightwing pressure group the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), which is funded by […]
David Berman has written Lending Experimentalism: A New Regulatory Approach to Payday Loans, Forthcoming in the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law Policy, Here is the abstract: Payday loans entangle consumers with few alternatives in catastrophically harmful cycles of borrowing. But because of their design, payday loans are vexingly difficult to regulate effectively. This article explains how […]
Last summer, the San Francisco City Attorney announced he was investigating former magazine U.S. News and World Report over its hospital rankings, noting “Consumers use these rankings to make consequential health care decisions, and yet there is little understanding that the rankings are fraught and that U.S. News has financial relationships with the hospitals it […]
The industry often claims that arbitration is cheaper than litigation for consumers. Well, not so much any more–if that was ever true–after the AAA’s new mass arbitration rules that Adam Pulver reported about on January 29. Adam mentioned the $3,125 initiation fee. In addition, under the new rules, for cases that proceed beyond the initiation […]
E. Gary Spitko of Santa Clara has written Arbitration Secrecy, 108 Cornell Law Review 1729 (2023). Here’s the abstract: Parties to an arbitration contract may agree to a secrecy clause that will govern their arbitration process to protect the confidentiality of their proprietary or personal information. Of great concern, however, they also may use such an […]
. . . titled Is Discrimination Unfair? is now available. I would love to hear any comments anyone has. Here’s the abstract: Though multiple federal laws explicitly bar discrimination in consumer transactions, many consumer transactions fall in the gaps between those laws. But recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have attempted […]
The Department of Energy yesterday “finalized congressionally-mandated energy efficiency standards for residential cooking products that will reduce household utility costs while improving appliance reliability and performance. These standards—which reflect a joint recommendation from a wide range of stakeholders, including the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, Consumer Federation of America, and energy efficiency advocates—will take effect […]
It’s Identity Theft Awareness Week, Jan. 29-Feb. 2. The Federal Trade Commission says this week it “will host free podcasts, webinars, Facebook Live interviews, and other events focused on avoiding and recovering from identity theft and spotting scams.” Join the FTC in spreading helpful information for consumers on social media.
In a recent blog post, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offered a quick overview of its 2023 enforcement work. The agency reported that it filed 29 enforcement actions against financial institutions and resolved six prior lawsuits. Lenders, banks, and other entities that broke the law were ordered to pay approximately $3.07 billion to consumers and […]
As previously discussed on the blog, corporate defendants have in several cases refused to comply with AAA’s rules regarding payment when customers invoke their contractual rights and file arbitration demands en masse. Reacting to the complaints of corporate defendants, AAA has now altered its mass arbitration rules to, among other things, drastically reduce the fees […]