More information here. Here’s an excerpt: Consumers must be given a meaningful opportunity to choose how to proceed when disputes arise. Take-it-or-leave-it terms and conditions imposed in a consumer contract, through use of a product, or by signing up for a service does not allow that opportunity. Restoring consumers’ ability to make the choice about […]
The Federal Trade Commission has finalized a new rule to fight two common types of illegal tactics consumers face when buying a car: bait-and-switch tactics and hidden junk fees. The FTC expects the rule to save consumers nationwide more than $3.4 billion and an estimated 72 million hours each year shopping for vehicles. The FTC’s […]
I wrote The FAA Should Not Cover Consumer Claims, to appear in The Federal Arbitration Act: Successes, Failures, and a Roadmap for Reform (Richard A. Bales & Jill I. Gross eds., forthcoming 2024 Cambridge University Press). Here is the abstract: Consumer protection laws face a fundamental enforcement issue: because consumer claims are typically for small […]
As regular readers of the blog know, last month some 160 law academics filed with the CFPB a comment supporting the issuance of a new arbitration regulation (disclosure: I served on the drafting committee). Mark J. Levin & Alan S. Kaplinsky of Ballard Spahr recently posted a critique of the law professor comment on the Consumer Finance […]
Rosario Hernandez sued MicroBilt after a verification report the company issued inaccurately stated she was on a government watch list, leading to her being denied a loan. Citing a mandatory arbitration agreement in her loan application, MicroBilt moved to compel, and Hernandez dismissed her court complaint and submitted her claims to the AAA for arbitration. […]
The Center for Justice & Democracy has published a report titled “Kicked Out of Court in 2023 – 50 Cases Showing the Real-World Impact of Forced Arbitration.” The introduction explains: Mistreatment by tech giants like TikTok. Automobiles and appliances sold with dangerous defects. Nude photos posted online by medical offices. Farms and crops ruined due […]
When Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it tried to insulate it from the political branches. Critics of the Bureau have fought to eliminate that insulation. For example, industry actors asserted that the president should have the power to fire the CFPB director without cause, a position that the Supreme Court agreed with in […]
Attorney Spencer Sheehan brought a class action in the Northern District of New York, arguing that Starbucks’ representation that a specific blend of coffee was “100% Arabica Coffee” was misleading, since it suggested there were no additives, including potassium. The district court dismissed the complaint, noting that there was no allegation that there actually was […]
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, owner of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, filed a lawsuit this week in Washington, DC challenging the constitutionality of the Federal Trade Commission. The complaint questions FTC’s longstanding structure and processes, including the agency’s administrative proceedings, its executive authority (although it is led by presidentially-nominated and Congressionally-confirmed commissioners), and its authority to protect […]
This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Bank of America to pay a $12 million penalty for submitting false mortgage lending information to the federal government under a long-standing federal law. For at least four years, hundreds of Bank of America loan officers failed to ask mortgage applicants certain demographic questions as required under […]