Chamber and bank groups that say discrimination is not unfair have used “fair lending” to refer to non-discriminatory lending

I have blogged before about the suit brought by the Chamber of Commerce and various banking groups against the CFPB in which the plaintiffs argue that the CFPB is wrong to describe discrimination as unfair. But when I asked a research assistant to see if the plaintiffs themselves use the phrase “fair lending” laws to […]

CAFA doesn’t displace MMWA jurisdictional requirements, 3rd Circuit holds

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act provides for federal district court jurisdiction in cases alleging violations of that statute except where (1) any one claim is less than $25, (2) the total amount in controversy is less than $50,000, or (3) it is a class action with less than 100 named plaintiffs. Several MMWA defendants have removed […]

CFPB, FTC riders in U.S. House appropriations bills

The U.S. Congress is considering FY24 funding for the entire government, and normally it should involve just that, funding. Yet the U.S. House Appropriations Committee recently dropped its Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) bill, which includes proposals that would impact consumer protection policy. These riders take aim at the substantive work of a number […]

FTC seeks comment on collaboration with state attorneys general

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comments and suggestions on ways it can work more effectively with state attorneys general nationwide to help educate consumers about, and protect them from, potential fraud. The request for public information (RFI) announced today comes at the direction of the FTC Collaboration Act of 2021, which President Biden signed […]

DC announces financial relief for consumers deceived by EasyPay

The DC Attorney General’s Office today announced that “EasyPay Finance (EasyPay), a rent-a-bank lender that had operated in the District, will pay more than $215,000 to resolve allegations that it used predatory practices to deceive hundreds of District residents into paying interest rates significantly above DC’s legally allowed maximum rate. In addition to financial terms, […]

Christine Kexel Chabot paper on the CFSA case and history

Christine Kexel Chabot of Marquette has written The Founders’ Purse. Here’s the abstract: This Article addresses a new and impending war over the constitutionality of broad delegations of spending power to the executive branch. In an opening salvo, the Fifth Circuit held that Congress unconstitutionally delegated its power of the purse to the Consumer Financial Protection […]

BofA accused of opening fake accounts and charging illegal junk fees

CNN reports: “Federal regulators said Tuesday they found that Bank of America harmed customers by double-dipping on fees, withholding credit card rewards and opening fake accounts, all of which are violations of various consumer financial protection laws. As a result, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Bank of America to pay more than $100 million […]

A note of caution about signing up for Threads

Twitter has become such  a mess that  it is  not surprising that there has been a rush of sign-ons for the new service offered by  Meta to compete in that space. But note the following language in  the Supplemental Privacy Policy :  You may deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile […]

Caleb Griffin article: Contracting as a Class

Caleb N. Griffin of Arkansas has written Contracting as a Class, 48 BYU Law Review (2023). Here’s the abstract: Contract law is stuck in a loop of path dependency and stale precedent. Its metaphors, like “the meeting of the minds,” are today laughably implausible. Its values, like “consent,” have been stripped of any real meaning. No one […]

FTC finally updates “endorsement” guidelines

A lot has changed in social media since 2009 (remember when Twitter was good?), but, while “influencers” continue to use social media platforms to sell products and services (often while pretending they are actual product users as opposed to paid salespeople), the FTC had not updated its “endorsement” guidelines since then. Last week, the agency […]