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 […]
Shelly Milgram’s employee opened, in Milgram’s name, a credit card with Chase and ran up tens of thousands of dollars in debt–then illegally accessed Milgram’s bank accounts and used them to partially pay off the monthly statements. When the scheme was discovered (with the employee later convicted of fraud), Milgram reported the fraud to Chase […]
Yvonne Mack received a debt collection notice, referring to a US Bank credit card she had held. She was uncertain that the debt amount was accurate, and thus a submitted a request for validation of the debt via certified mail. She received no response. She then received a second debt collection notice. Confused, she went […]
The Guardian reports: “In 1953, a paper developed for cigarette maker RJ Reynolds detailed possible cancer-causing agents in tobacco, but the document would remain hidden from public view for decades. In the interim, the industry told the public: ‘We don’t accept the idea that there are harmful agents in tobacco.’ The chemical industry, it seemed, […]
Today’s Supreme Court decision in Jack Daniel’s v. VIP Products reverses the appellate decision below in a way that minimizes the possible damage to free speech interests that impelled Public Citizen and others to file amicus briefs in the case. It confines the decision to the narrow issue on which certiorari was granted, rather than […]
An op-ed by Sierra Club’s Jessica Tritsch’s starts: “A reasonable person would think that reducing strain on our energy infrastructure, bringing down consumer utility bills and protecting the health of kids would be issues that had bipartisan support, yet Congress is considering a pair of bills that would ensure the opposite. The so-called Save Our Gas […]
The Center for Justice and Democracy has issued a report titled “Nuclear Fizzle: How Jury Grievance Reports Whitewash Corporate Misconduct and Dehumanize Victims.” Here is the brief summary: “Corporate lobby groups are issuing reports criticizing juries when their large corporate members lose cases (which we call “jury grievance reports”). Their focus is on what they […]
The Federal Trade Commission reported this week on the refunds returned to harmed consumers in 2022 from its cases against bad actors that cheated, deceived, defrauded people out of their money. The agency’s press release also contained a sober message: refunds to consumers are dropping due to AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC, a 2021 […]
Kate Berry has the story here (behind paywall but available on Lexis). Excerpt: * * * The consumer watchdog has filed just five enforcement actions so far this year compared with 20 last year, which marked the second-lowest number on record; just 10 enforcement actions were brought in 2018 during the Trump administration. By comparison, […]