Consumer Law & Policy Blog

Don't Post This Cease-and-Desist Letter, Or Else

by Greg Beck

DirectBuy is a company that claims to offer a deal on furniture and home supplies by letting consumers buy directly from the manufacturer. Apparently, the company doesn't want you to hear from customers who don't think the deal is such a good one. The company's law firm, Dozier Internet Law (which specializes, among other things, in using copyright law to "get websites pulled down without notice") sent a strongly worded demand letter to the owner of InfomercialScams.com, claiming that consumer complaints on the website are defamatory because they refer to the company's direct-buy plan as a "scam" and a "nightmare."

CAFA Symposium

The University of Pennsylvania Law Review is having a symposium on November 30 and December 1 titled "Fairness to Whom? Perspectives on the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005."  The impressive list of speakers includes Geoffrey Hazard, Stephen Burbank, Ed Purcell, Stephen Subrin,  David Shapiro, Arthur Miller, Judith Resnik, Suzanna Sherry, Linda Silberman, John Coffee, Kevin Clermont, Theodore Eisenberg, and other legal luminaries.  The symposium website is here.

NYPIRG Launches Website To Protect Consumers From Online Scams

The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) has launched CyberStreetSmart.org -- a website aimed at protecting consumers from on-line scams.  It advises consumers on how to protect themselves against phishing, on-line shopping and auction scams, and the hazards of on-line dating and social networking.  It also  provides information on how to report on-line scams to relevant governmental authorities.  Check it out.

2008 Yearbook of Consumer Law

The 2008 Yearbook of Consumer Law is about to be published.  Here's the table of contents:

Foreword; Part 1 Articles 2008: European consumer law: making sense, Jac G.J. Rinkes; The future of European contract law: some questions and some answers, Guido Alpa; The relationship between national and European consumer policy – challenges and perspectives, Hans-W. Micklitz; General clauses on fairness and the promotion of values important in services of general interest, Chris Willett; The statutory frameworks and general rules on unfair commercial practices in the 25 EU member states on the eve of harmonization . . .

September 2007 NHTSA Recalls

The September 2007 auto safety recalls from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are available here.

Mortgage Assistance Program For Home Buyers Who Lack Credit History

  Today's Washington Post has this story about CitiMortgage's $200 million pilot program in the Washington, D.C. area to provide mortgage assistance of about $100,000 each to 2000 home buyers who lack credit history, and would otherwise find the cost of credit unmanageable.  The program will be managed by a D.C. non-profit organization and has the support of the D.C. government.

Report on the Consumer Issues Conference at the University of Wyoming

Dee Pridgen generously wrote an account for us of the Consumer Issues Conference held last week at the University of Wyoming.  Here's what she said:

       We have just recently concluded the 7^th Consumer Issues Conference:  Money Matters, at the University of Wyoming, held September 26^th and 27^th.  The conference was aimed at a broad audience, from undergraduate students to practicing attorneys.  We started with a free showing of the documentary Maxed Out, which has been reviewed on this blog.   Writer/director James Scurlock gave two presentations. We also had Jeanne Hogarth, consumer education expert from the Federal Reserve Board, and Norma Garcia, of Consumers Union, among other speakers.  If you are interested in the presentations, you can access this audio file and/or power point slides from many of the presentations.

Tell the ABA What You Think About the Class Action "Fairness" Act

In anticipation of its 11th Annual National Institute on Class Actions (to be held on October 19 in Chicago), the American Bar Association is asking class action practitioners and law professors to complete a brief online survey on the consequences of CAFA:

The afternoon agenda for the National Institute features a program titled, "Current CAFA Consequences."  To help assess the practical impact of the two-and-a-half-year-old Class Action Fairness Act, program organizers are conducting a non-scientific survey of class action practitioners and related professionals. Please contribute to this effort by taking the survey yourself. It will take only five-to-ten minutes.

You can find the survey here and the conference program here.

Final Defense Department Regulations On Loans To Service Members Go Into Effect

  Final Defense Department regulations implementing federal legislation to curb predatory lending aimed at service members and their families went into effect yesterday, October 1, 2007.  The legislation was intended, among other things, to limit short-term interest rates charged to military families.  But the implementing regulations carve out large exceptions, including credit cards and other open-end credit, causing consumer advocates to charge that the DoD has created a road map for evading Congressional intent.  The Washington Post has this story on the new rules.  The CL&P Blog has covered the issue extensively here, here, and here.  Read the Defense Department's press release here.  To view the final Defense Department regulations, go here. 

Consumer Product Safety Commission Recalls for September 2007

The Consumer Product Safety Commission product recalls for September 2007 are available here.