Farshad Ghodoosi of California State, Northridge, David Nazarian College of Business & Economics, Department of Business Law and Monica M. Sharif of California State, Los Angeles have written Arbitration Effect, 60 Am. Bus. L.J. 235 (2023) (behind paywall but also available on Westlaw). Here’s the abstract: Arbitration is changing the United States justice system. Critics argue […]
The Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) today sued the federal government and issued a report on the student loan experience for incarcerated borrowers. In its first lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, SBPC is seeking to compel the production of documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The request concerns the federal government […]
In June 2021, Nevada enacted a law that requires debt collectors to provide written notification to debtors 60 days before taking any action to collect a medical debt. Debt collectors sought a preliminary injunction against the law, claiming it violated the First Amendment, was unconstitutionally vague, and was preempted by the FCRA and the FDCPA. […]
Yesterday CFPB Director, Rohit Chopra, appeared before the House Financial Services Committee to answer questions from committee members, as he does at least twice a year. I haven’t watched the recording yet but according to reports in Law360 and the American Banker, some Republican committee members accused Chopra or the CFPB of being an appendage […]
We’ve received the following call for papers. Because recent standing cases like TransUnion and Spokeo have arisen in the context of consumer law and have had such an impact on consumer law, it may be that some readers of the blog have things to contribute. Call for Papers: Join us on September 22 at the […]
That’s essentially what Brad Karp is arguing in a June 1 essay in the American Banker, The CFPB’s late-fee proposal would harm the consumers it seeks to help (behind paywall but available on Lexis). Karp claims costs would go up for “the large majority of credit card customers” because delinquencies would meaningfully rise. As the […]
A customer brought a consumer class action against Procter & Gamble over its use of the phrase “Nature Fusion,” along with a picture of an avocado, on certain products’ bottles, claiming it was an unfair and deceptive business practice and false advertising under California law, misleading consumers into thinking the product was natural. A Ninth […]
In March 2022, a FINRA panel found that Alpine, a securities broker-dealer, “converted and misused customer funds and securities, engaged in unauthorized trading, charged and paid customers unfair prices in securities transactions, charged customers unreasonable and discriminatory fees, and made an unauthorized capital withdrawal.” FINRA then found that Alpine violated its cease-and-desist order 35,000 times, […]
On June 2, I wrote a blog post, Opaque (formerly Dark) Patterns and Arbitration Opt Outs, arguing that arbitration opt outs are really opaque patterns. On June 8, Mark J. Levin of the Ballard Spahr firm replied in a post at the Consumer Financial Monitor Blog, Arbitration opt out provisions benefit consumers, Professor Sovern. But Mr. […]
The Washington Post has done an analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data showing 736 U.S. crashes since 2019 involving Tesla cars operating in autopilot mode. According to this article by Faiz Saddiqui and Jeremy Merrill, that’s far more Tesla autopilot crashes than previously revealed. The article discusses these findings in some detail and […]