NCLC statement on CFPB’s new rule rescinding payday loan protections

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today announced a final rule rescinding payday loans protections that had been issued in October 2017. Among the provisions rescinded are those limiting unaffordable loans that trap families in cycles of debt. The CFPB also announced that it will implement the provisions of the payday loan rule that prevent lenders, […]

In light of the Supreme Court decision, CFPB ratifies earlier agency actions

As established by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was headed by a director who could the President could remove only for cause (inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office). The CFPB’s first director was appointed on January 4, 2012. On June 29, 2020, the Supreme Court held in Seila […]

Effort to Suppress Trump Niece’s Book Shows the Need to Construe NDA’s Narrowly

by Paul Alan Levy The lawsuit filed by Robert Trump against his niece, Mary Trump, seeking to block her from publishing a book that apparently has several damning facts to disclose about Robert’s brother, and Mary Trump’s uncle, our Dear Leader Donald J. Trump, is based on a non-disclosure clause that was part of the […]

“Severability” to the Rescue Again: A Further Note on Today’s Supreme Court Robocalling Decision

Steve Gardner has given a great and succinct summary of todays decision in Barr v. AAPC. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act lives, minus its obnoxious exception for government debt collection robocalls. What's not to like about that bottom line? I want to make an additional point about the significance of the decision. For the second […]

Supreme Court bans debt collection robocalling to cellphones

by Stephen Gardner Today, the Supreme Court held that collecting government debt by robocalling cellphones didn’t deserve special First Amendment treatment. In Barr v. American Assn. of Political Consultants, Inc., the Court held that a 2015 amendment to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which allowed cellphone robocalls to collect federal debts (such as student loans […]

CFPB Directors Now Under President’s Thumb

The Supreme Court issued its ruling in Seila Law v. CFPB today, holding by a 5-4 vote that the Congress violated the principle of separation of powers by placing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under a single director removable by the president only for cause. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion, with Justice Kagan […]

A Shot Across the Bow for Copyright Trolls: Forcing Higbee Clients to Pay for Frivolous Demand Letters and Intimidation Tactics

by Paul Alan Levy As I have discussed in several previous posts, Mathew Higbee has built up a significant copyright enforcement business that depends on the issuance of threatening demand letters that are followed up by a small army of “compliance resolution specialists” who nag and threaten large awards of damages, the issuance of judgment […]

Dep’t of Education ordered to cancel student loans of all former Corinthian Colleges students in MA

"A federal judge has ordered the Department of Education to cancel the student loans of all 7,200 former Corinthian Colleges students in Massachusetts. This is the first time a federal court has ordered a borrower defense discharge of federal student loans. "The victory in Vara v. DeVos comes nearly two years after the Department of […]

States use consumer protection laws to fight climate change

The D.C. attorney general sued four of the world’s largest oil and gas companies — BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell — Thursday, asserting that they have engaged in a decades-long campaign to deceive District consumers about the effects of fossil fuels on climate change. The lawsuit, based on the DC Consumer Protection Procedures Act and […]