Late last week we filed an amicus brief in an Ohio court case in which the City of Beachwood is financing litigation, purportedly seeking to recover damages for the police chief based on an anonymous email and a handful of anonymous posts to the police department’s Facebook page that denigrated the police chief’s leadership. We […]
Tobacco companies have long fought regulatory action to protect consumer health and safety, and while there has been a shift from smokeable products to “e-cigarettes,” the legal battles continue. In 2016, the FDA issued a rule deeming e-cigarettes “new tobacco products,” and requiring manufacturers to submit premarket tobacco product applications (“PMTAs”) before they could sell […]
The Federal Trade Commission has been busy the past few days: FTC Finalizes Order Requiring Credit Karma to Pay $3 Million and Halt Deceptive ‘Pre-Approved’ Claims (Jan. 23, 2023) FTC Order Requires HomeAdvisor to Pay Up To $7.2 Million and Stop Deceptively Marketing its Leads for Home Improvement Projects (Jan. 23, 2023) FTC Order Requires […]
American Banker’s Kate Berry reports in an article titled Could credit card late fees drop to $10? (behind paywall but probably available on Lexis) that the CFPB is expected to issue a proposal soon that would cut credit card late fees sharply. Under the Credit CARD Act of 2009, credit card late fees must be […]
My latest, co-authored with Nahal Heydari. It may be behind a paywall, but should soon be available on Lexis. It’s based on our article, Not-So-Smartphone Disclosures, which reports on the results of a survey of consumer understanding of credit card disclosures on smartphones and other computers. Here’s an excerpt: If we had graded the consumers by […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission are teaming up to fight “dark patterns” and “negative option” subscription charges. The regulators are concerned about deceptive practices that mislead people into subscriptions or other recurring payments for products and services they do not want. In a “circular” released this week, the CFPB described […]
From Bloomberg: When a commissioner from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said earlier this month it would consider a ban on gas stoves to beat back greenhouse emissions and health hazards, the backlash was swift. Enraged Americans and conservative politicians were adamant about keeping their beloved appliance, and the agency renounced the possibility of a […]
Writing for the Maine Monitor, Marina Schauffler observes: Going back in time can reveal how far we still have to progress. In researching per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) for a recent article series, I found myself ricocheting between the present and the 1950s and 1960s. That was when the vast class of fluorinated compounds commonly […]
A few interesting updates concerning student-loan forgiveness or discharge care of Politico this morning: An Education Department judge plans to hold a hearing next week on DeVry University’s appeal of a $23 million penalty stemming from fraud-related loan discharges for its former students. Two for-profit education companies and a non-profit college are appealing a settlement, […]
The Supreme Court on Friday granted review of a case that arises from a payday loan to a consumer from a corporate entity owned by a Native American tribe. The issue in the case is whether the Bankruptcy Code abrogates tribal sovereign immunity. Given the prevalence of internet-based payday lending affiliated with tribal lenders, the […]