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 […]
The Federal Trade Commission is sending more than $3 million in refunds to businesses that paid for memberships to HomeAdvisor, Inc., a company affiliated with Angi (formerly known as Angie’s List). The agency is also sending claim forms to businesses that are eligible for additional refunds. The refunds stem from FTC allegations that HomeAdvisor used […]
by Paul Alan Levy Today we have filed our first brief in a case in the First Department of New York’s Appellate Division that may present an opportunity to secure an appellate ruling in that state on the Dendrite standard, the consensus approach to deciding whether an individual or company contending that speech about it […]
From time to time at a gathering of consumer law folks, I poll participants about whether they read consumer law contracts and disclosures. Here, for example, are the results of a survey of consumer law professors asked those questions. Earlier this year, I surveyed the audience at a consumer financial services lawyers, some of whose […]
In July, the CFPB and 11 states filed an adversary complaint in bankruptcy court against Prehired — a company that operated a private, for-profit vocational training program for software sales representatives. Promising entry-level wages of over $100,000, Prehired charged $30,000 for its program and encouraged students to enter into income share loans. The CFPB alleged […]
The Washington Post reports: “From airlines to ticket sellers, companies fight U.S. to keep junk fees. An array of powerful moneyed lobbyists have warred with the Biden administration over its new regulatory crackdown as they scramble to protect their profits.” The full article is here.
The Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission recently released notices to gather information on the use of advanced technologies in consumer sectors that the regulators oversee. The FCC announced that it is exploring emerging AI technologies and their connection to its work to protect consumers from unwanted and illegal calls and text messages […]
Reuters’s Allson Frankel has the story here, and also reports on industry opposition. The original petition, as well as the comments, can be read here. Here’s an excerpt from the law professor comment (disclosure: I served on the drafting committee): Multiple studies have demonstrated that consumers do not understand arbitration clauses. In contrast, no study […]
If items are always on sale, are they really on sale at all? This is the question underlying the plaintiff’s claim in Hennessey v. The Gap, a case in which an Eighth Circuit decision issued yesterday, affirming the dismissal of a consumer class action. The named plaintiff sued the Gap and Old Navy, alleging that sale […]