Yesterday, the CFPB announced that it has reached a settlement of a lawsuit filed in 2020 against Citizens Bank. The agency alleged that the bank failed to properly manage and respond to customers’ credit card disputes and fraud claims. The settlement includes a $9 million civil penalty, and an agreement that the bank will fix […]
Read Amazon’s Pricing Paradox by Rory Van Loo and Nikita Aggarwal. Here’s the abstract: Amidst contentious debates about whether Amazon wields excess market power to harm competitors, one of the few things that most parties have agreed upon is that Amazon offers low prices. This Article challenges that assumption by demonstrating that Amazon charges higher prices […]
I came across this Federal Trade Commission s interactive dashboard for refund data, which gives a state-by-state breakdown of refunds in FTC cases. Clicking on the “refunds by date” tab shows that 1.9 million people cashed refunds totaling more than $392 million in 2022.
“Tipping” and “donating” have taken on a new meaning in high-interest online lending. Earlier this month, California, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia snagged SoLo Funds, Inc., an online lending platform, for deceiving consumers about the true cost of the loans it facilitated. According to the states and DC, the fintech required borrowers to pay […]
The Federal Trade Commission is sending payments totaling more than $557,000 to consumers who paid money to GDP Network, LLC (YF Solution), a Florida-based telemarketing company that promised credit card interest rate reductions and regularly failed to deliver. The FTC and the State of Florida sued GDP Network and its owners in July 2020, alleging […]
Mark E. Budnitz of Georgia State has written New Developments in Payment Systems and Services Affecting Low-Income Consumers: Challenges and Opportunities, Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy (2023). Here’s the abstract: The consumer financial services industry has taken advantage of digital technology to transform the way it provides services to consumers using payment systems. After […]
Earlier this year, I confronted Daniel DeSouza over his law firm’s demand for a “settlement” of $30,000 based on the claim that Asheville acupuncturist James Whittle had infringed the copyright of Prepared Food Photos by posting a colorful image of fruits and vegetables taken by its corporate predecessor Adlife Marketing and Communications. My response explained […]
In a 94-page opinion issued after a lengthy bench trial, a Massachusetts District Judge has found the “Northeast Alliance” between American Airlines and JetBlue, by which the two airlines coordinated their flights out of New York and Boston, to violate the Sherman Act. An appeal is sure to follow. But the main takeaway from the […]
Benjamin L. Cavataro of Villanova has written Regulating Guns as Products, forthcoming in 92 George Washington Law Review (2024). Here’s the abstract: Toy guns are subject to federal product safety regulation. Real guns are not. If a defect in an air rifle causes it to discharge without warning, the manufacturer would be required to promptly […]
In the payday lending industry’s case challenging the CFPB’s funding as unconstitutional, the agency’s opening brief in the Supreme Court and the many amicus briefs in support of the agency have been filed. You can read all of them on the Court’s website, here. Public Citizen’s amicus brief is also posted on our website, here.