Consumer Law & Policy Blog

What Exxon knew about global warming and when it knew it

Read this fascinating investigative report from the L.A. Times, documenting the dissonance between Exxon's public position on global warming and its private studies undertaken to maintain competitiveness in a world they assumed would be warming. The upshot:

As [an internal] team was closely studying the impact of climate change on the company’s operations, Exxon and its worldwide affiliates were crafting a public policy position that sought to downplay the certainty of global warming.

The gulf between Exxon’s internal and external approach to climate change from the 1980s through the early 2000s was evident in a review of hundreds of internal documents, decades of peer-reviewed published material and dozens of interviews conducted by Columbia University’s Energy & Environmental Reporting Project and the Los Angeles Times.

WikiLeaks text of TPP intellectual property chapter

The text is available here.

Public Citizen explains how bad it is for access to lifesaving medicines.

Center for Science in the Public Interest sues FDA over inaction on salt

Represented by Public Citizen, CSPI filed suit yesterday in federal court in DC to compel action by FDA on CSPI's citizen petition to reduce the alarming amount of salt to which U.S. consumers are exposed. The petition has been pending for 10 years, and FDA's foot-dragging dates back far longer, explains CSPI in its press release.

As for the scope of the problem and the risks, CSPI says:

[T]he FDA’s failure to reduce the sodium in packaged and other foods is contributing to tens of thousands of premature deaths annually due to stroke, heart disease, and other health problems. The average American consumes about 3,650 milligrams of sodium per day, far in excess of the 2,300 milligram limit recommended by federal dietary guidelines, or the 1,500 milligram limit recommended for certain subgroups, including children, people over 50, African Americans, and people with hypertension, kidney disease, or diabetes.

You can see the complaint here.

General Mills recalls 1.8m boxes of "gluten-free" Cheerios that, well, weren't

The FDA had gotten 125 complaints prior to the recall, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Still, in an era when companies stubbornly resist potentially safe-saving recalls (think Takata air bags), it's good news that this recall was relatively expeditious.

"Senate Democratic Inquiry Targets Banks, Wall Street Settlements"

The Wall Street Journal reports:

A powerful Democratic senator has launched an inquiry into bank misconduct, asking top financial institutions to turn over information about the settlements they have entered into with federal agencies over the past decade.

Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, asked banks in a letter dated Sept. 30 to provide details of any “legally enforceable judgment, agreement, settlement, decree or order dated January 1, 2005 to the present,” involving 15 federal agencies including the Department of Justice, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and several Treasury Department units.

The inquiry could add fuel to growing criticism by lawmakers and others that such settlements have failed to deter repeated bank misbehavior.

The full article is here. (Log-in required.)

"Big Business wants to kill CFPB’s anti-arbitration rule. Here’s the game plan."

Alison Frankel at Reuters has this article today.

Housing Wire: House passes bipartisan TRID grace period bill 303-121

by Jeff Sovern

Here. The first paragraphs read:

Defying the threat of a White House veto, the House on Wednesday afternoon passed bipartisan legislation to help homebuyers avoid delays and disruptions when closing on their new homes by a bipartisan vote of 303-121.

The bill, the Homebuyers Assistance Act, provides a four-month grace period for businesses that are working in good faith to comply with a new 1,888-page rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that went into effect Oct. 4.

The article doesn't note until the eleventh paragraph the purpose of the regulations (to enable consumers to learn their mortgage payment obligations, ignorance of which contributed to the defaults and foreclosures leading to the Great Recession), and fails to mention at all that the regulations were announced nearly two years ago.

$200 a good price for your right to go to court?

If you think so, Chrysler has a deal for you: a discount in exchange for agreeing to binding arbitration. Of course, if there's a problem with the car, then you may end up out way more than $200, and the notoriously business-friendly arbitration system is unlikely to help with that.

This story on Jalopnik explains.

 

NBC.Com: FTC Sues Diet Pill Maker For Trying To Silence Unhappy Customers

Here.  Non-disparagement clauses are suddenly drawing a lot of attention.

CFPB Considering Ban on Class Action Waivers in Arbitration Clauses

The Bureau's announcement is here.  An excerpt:

Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced it is considering proposing rules that would ban consumer financial companies from using “free pass” arbitration clauses to block consumers from suing in groups to obtain relief. Buried in many contracts for consumer financial products like credit cards and bank accounts, most arbitration clauses deny consumers the right to participate in group lawsuits against companies. With this free pass, companies can sidestep the legal system, avoid big refunds, and continue to pursue profitable practices that may violate the law and harm countless consumers. The CFPB’s proposals under consideration would give consumers their day in court and deter companies from wrongdoing.

“Consumers should not be asked to sign away their legal rights when they open a bank account or credit card,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “Companies are using the arbitration clause as a free pass to sidestep the courts and avoid accountability for wrongdoing. The proposals under consideration would ban arbitration clauses that block group lawsuits so that consumers can take companies to court to seek the relief they deserve.”

No doubt we will hear more in the Field Hearing at 1:00 ET.