CL&P Blog

Coordinators

  • Allison Zieve
    Public Citizen Litigation Group
  • Deepak Gupta
    Gupta Wessler PLLC
  • Jeff Sovern
    St. John's University School of Law
  • Brian Wolfman
    Georgetown University Law Center and Harvard Law School

Other Contributors

  • Richard Alderman
    University of Houston Law Center
  • Paul Bland
    Public Justice
  • Stephen Gardner
    Consultant
  • Mike Landis
    US Public Interest Research Group
  • Paul Alan Levy
    Public Citizen Litigation Group
  • Scott Nelson
    Public Citizen Litigation Group
  • Ira Rheingold
    National Association of Consumer Advocates
  • Jon Sheldon
    National Consumer Law Center

About Us

www.clpblog.org

The contributors to the Consumer Law & Policy blog are lawyers and law professors who practice, teach, or write about consumer law and policy. The blog is hosted by Public Citizen Litigation Group, but the views expressed here are solely those of the individual contributors (and don't necessarily reflect the views of institutions with which they are affiliated). To view the blog's policies, please click here.

Blogs On Consumer Issues

  • Alabama Consumer Law Blog
  • Arnold & Porter Consumer Advertising Law Blog
  • CAFA Law Blog
  • Caveat Emptor
  • Citizen Vox
  • Consumer Affairs with Sheryl Harris
  • THE CONSUMERIST
  • Credit Slips
  • Home Equity Theft Reporter
  • Fair Arbitration NOW Blog
  • UCL Practitioner
  • U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog

Other Interesting Legal Blogs

  • American Constitution Society Blog
  • Balkinization
  • Concurring Opinions
  • The Conglomerate
  • Electronic Frontier Foundation DeepLinks
  • Empirical Legal Studies
  • How Appealing
  • Legal Theory Blog
  • Mass Tort Litigation Blog
  • Opinio Juris
  • PrawfsBlawg
  • Rebecca Tushnet's 43(B)log
  • SCOTUSblog
  • TortsProf Blog
  • Trademark Blog
  • Truth on the Market
  • The Volokh Conspiracy

Consumer Law & Policy Links

  • AAAP Foundation Litigation
  • American Collectors' Association
  • Americans for Financial Reform
  • American Tort Reform Association
  • American Association of Justice
  • Center for American Progress
  • Center for Justice and Democracy
  • Center for Responsible Lending
  • Center for Science in the Public Interest
  • Center for Study of Responsive Law
  • Consumer Action
  • Consumer Federation of America
  • Consumers Union
  • Electronic Frontier Foundation
  • Electronic Privacy Information Center
  • EU Consumer Policy Page
  • Fair Arbitration NOW
  • Federal Trade Commission
  • International Association of Consumer Law
  • National Association of Consumer Advocates
  • National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys
  • National Community Reinvestment Coalition
  • National Consumer Law Center
  • Public Citizen
  • State PIRGs
  • Public Justice (formerly Trial Lawyers for Public Justice)
  • Treasury Department, Regulatory Reform Agenda
  • U.S. Chamber Legal Reform
  • U.S. Public Interest Research Group

« December 2018 | Main | February 2019 »

Monday, January 21, 2019

CNN.com Op-Ed:Congress should follow California's lead in protecting consumers

by Jeff Sovern

My latest, here. The conclusion:

When it comes to these varied privacy problems, Congress has somehow managed to be both comatose and angry. Given its inability to respond nimbly in the rapidly shifting privacy arena, Congress should avoid hamstringing those who can. Any federal privacy law should preserve the power of states to protect consumers so states can continue experimenting and respond quickly to privacy challenges. Congress should also increase the FTC's budget and give the Commission the power to issue regulations. Congress should follow California's lead in obliging companies to tell consumers upon request what they know about them and what they do with the information. If Congress cannot help, it at least should not make things worse.

Posted by Jeff Sovern on Monday, January 21, 2019 at 07:56 AM in Privacy | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday, January 18, 2019

Holding Facebook Accountable

According to a recent story from Tony Romm and Elizabeth Dwoskin at the Washington Post, “U.S. regulators have met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook” for violating a 2011 consent decree that settled charges that Facebook deceived consumers with regard to its privacy policies and practices. In March 2018, the Federal Trade Commission confirmed that it had an “open non-public investigation” into Facebook’s privacy practices. That investigation was prompted, in large part, by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. According to the reporting:

The FTC’s exact findings in its Facebook investigation and the total amount of the fine, which the agency’s five commissioners have discussed at a private meeting in recent weeks, have not been finalized, two of the people said. Staff has briefed the commissioners about their probe, the third person said, and plan to issue a formal recommendation for a fine soon — a move that would then trigger a vote by the commissioners.

The full story is available here.

Posted by Mike Landis on Friday, January 18, 2019 at 06:44 PM in Federal Trade Commission, Privacy | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jacob Hale Russell Paper Shows Death of Unconscionablity Doctrine is Greatly Exaggerated

Jacob Hale Russell of Rutgers and Stanford's Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance has written Unconscionability's Greatly Exaggerated Death. Here is the abstract:

Reports of unconscionability’s demise are greatly exaggerated. According to conventional wisdom, the common-law contracts doctrine is rarely used, except in limiting clauses that purport to waive consumers’ remedial rights. In fact, as this Article documents, the doctrine is quietly flourishing: courts are using it to strike down substantive terms, including interest rates, in consumer finance contracts. In recent years judges across the country have rewritten or voided payday loans, signature loans, overdraft fees, and mortgage contracts on the grounds that their interest rates or other core terms were unconscionably unfair. 

Since unconscionability is alive and well, the time is ripe to answer an unexplored question in the doctrine’s contours. How tailored should the unconscionability analysis be to the characteristics of a particular consumer entering into a contract, versus untailored to the typical, median, or “reasonable” consumer? This Article advances an argument in favor of tailoring unconscionability. In addition to consistency with unconscionability’s theoretical underpinnings, tailoring brings the doctrine in line with modern contracting practices. Today’s consumer contracts involve increasing market segmentation, individualized pricing, and customization of terms, in stark contrast to the stylized view of boilerplate that most scholars take for granted. Unconscionability can thus play an important role in consumer protection policy, which faces the challenge that consumers are highly heterogeneous and need different protections. Courts have a particular edge here: they specialize in individualized fact-finding, in contrast to regulations, which are generally one-size-fits-all.

Posted by Jeff Sovern on Friday, January 18, 2019 at 05:30 PM in Consumer Law Scholarship | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday, January 17, 2019

CFPB and NY settle with Sterling Jewelers over enrolling customers in credit cards without the customers' consent

The State of New York and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (which is not shut down) yesterday settled claims against Sterling Jewelers, based on findings that that the company violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 by opening store credit-card accounts without customer consent; enrolling customers in payment-protection insurance without their consent; and misrepresenting to consumers the financing terms associated with the credit-card accounts. The CFPB also found Truth in Lending Act violations, based on Sterling signing customers up for credit-card accounts without having received an oral or written request or application from them.

Under the settlement, the company will pay a $10 million civil money penalty to the CFPB and a $1 million civil money penalty to New York. The settlement also includes injunctive relief designed to prevent the continuation of the wrongdoing.

The consent order is here.

So apparently Wells Fargo is not the only company to sign people up for accounts without consent. The scope of wrongdoing by Wells Fargo, and the penalty, were of course much larger.

Posted by Allison Zieve on Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Representative Katie Porter to Join House Financial Services Committee

by Jeff Sovern

The media has devoted considerable attention to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's joining the House Financial Services Committee. I'm glad she is on the committee--the more members who are not beholden to banks, the better--and I suspect few realize how intelligent Ocasio-Cortez is (taking second place in the Intel competition is an impressive accomplishment).  But I believe the rookie member of the committee who is likely to have the most impact is former professor Katie Porter.  Not only is Porter brilliant, she is also extremely knowledgeable about consumer law and bankruptcy, having studied and written about them for years. She also brings the practical experience that comes from having monitored the mortgage settlement in California. During hearings, she may know more than some witnesses about the matters the witnesses are testifying about. She promises to be a formidable member of the committee, and I hope its members defer to her judgment.

Posted by Jeff Sovern on Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 03:57 PM in Consumer Legislative Policy | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Not Entirely "Unpresidented" -- The History of the Domain Name Used to Parody the Washington Post

UnPresidented
The Yes Men perpetrated (or perhaps only collaborated on) a parody of the Washington Post today, distributing tens of thousands of hard copy editions date-lined May 1, 2019 (making the parody too obvious), but also transmitting email from “send85-proxymailing@washingtonpost.com” domain, which in turn links to a fairly extensive parody web site located at my-washingtonpost.com. A second email, purporting to come from an email address on the washingtonpost.com domain, purported to provide a correction:

“An earlier email from the Washington Post erroneously stated that President Trump has departed the Oval Office. We stand corrected (by ourselves, as well as dozens of Twitter users). This event in fact occurred three months and a half from now, possibly."

For those of us with a sense of history, it was startling to see that the parodists were using the domain name my-washingtonpost.com, a name that was featured in litigation running from 2002 to 2005 under the Lanham Act and the then-fairly new anti-cybersquatting law, the ACPA.

Continue reading "Not Entirely "Unpresidented" -- The History of the Domain Name Used to Parody the Washington Post" »

Posted by Paul Levy on Wednesday, January 16, 2019 at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday, January 14, 2019

Changes to consumer law in 2019

The National Consumer Law Center has a list of federal and state consumer law changes scheduled to take effect in 2019, as well as several changes that were effective in November and December of 2018 that have special relevance in 2019. The list is here.

Posted by Allison Zieve on Monday, January 14, 2019 at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday, January 13, 2019

In latest from Trump Administration's "deregulatory agenda," hospitals are required to post prices and post meaningless gibberish

by Jeff Sovern

So reports the NY Times. Excerpt:

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, responding to a new Trump administration order to begin posting all hospital prices, listed a charge of $42,569 for a cardiology procedure described as “HC PTC CLOS PAT DUCT ART.”

Baptist Health in Miami helpfully told consumers that an “Embolza Protect 5.5” would cost them $9,818 while a “Visceral selective angio rad” runs a mere $5,538.

More evidence that disclosure is usually an unsuccessful consumer protection, but the Trump administration is locked in ideologically to disclosure, as demonstrated by the quote in the article from Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: “This is about empowering patients.” Disclosure often provides the illusion of consumer protection without the reality. Could it be that the administration wants to be able to say it is empowering patients, while actually providing them no benefit whatsoever?

Posted by Jeff Sovern on Sunday, January 13, 2019 at 08:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Shutdown impeding consumer and worker protections

In a post yesterday, Public Citizen reported that the government shutdown is placing crucial consumer, health, and safety protections at serious risk.

The agency most impacted in the Consumer Product Safety Commission, where only 20 members of the 550-person staff are at work during the shutdown (working, but not being paid).

For information about the specific impacts due to furloughs brought on by the shutdown at eleven federal consumer and worker protection agencies, read the report here.

Posted by Allison Zieve on Thursday, January 10, 2019 at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday, January 09, 2019

ABA President responds to our op-ed but ignores our main argument

by Jeff Sovern

Here, in Bloomberg. I'm afraid I didn't find it persuasive. He didn't respond to our argument that state courts often fail to discipline attorneys who violate ethical rules in debt collection matters, as well as other points we made. 

Posted by Jeff Sovern on Wednesday, January 09, 2019 at 05:15 PM in Debt Collection | Permalink | Comments (2)

« More Recent | Older »

Subscribe to CL&P

RSS/Atom Feed

To receive a daily email of Consumer Law & Policy content, enter your email address here:

Search CL&P Blog

Recent Posts

  • Supreme Court Addresses Discovery Rule for FDCPA Statute of Limitations
  • Professors who want an electronic version of the forthcoming new edition of our consumer law casebook . . .
  • FTC settles deceptive advertising charges against University of Phoenix
  • Arbel & Shapira article on nudniks and consumer activism
  • Can Devin Dodge Dendrite to Doxx and Damage Devin’s Cow?
  • Chanrasekhar & Horton paper examines the source of the repeat player effect in consumer arbitration
  • House passes anti-robocall bill
  • Dept of Education discloses that it tried to collect from even more Corinthian Colleges students -- in violation of a court order
  • ProPublica story on how Utah payday lenders get borrowers jailed for missing payments
  • Combating social security scam phone calls
  • Essay on the fight over on-line children's privacy
  • Just in time for the holidays: U.S. PIRG's 34th annual "Trouble in Toyland" report
  • "Hardly Anyone Files Arbitration Claims"
  • OCC to propose new rules on Community Reinvestment Act
  • Rule implementing a new Texas law against surprise medical billing may narrow the law's protections
  • New edition of our casebook coming in January
  • CFPB Director Kraninger: Bureau will soon provide more clarity on meaning of abusive practice
  • CFPB's regulatory agenda for 2020
  • "Trump Administration Declares Open Season on Consumers for Subprime Lenders"
  • FTC sues to stop student-loan debt-relief scam
  • How Much Should Mathew Higbee’s Targets Pay to Get Him Off Their Backs?
  • Raher Article on Consumer Law in Prisons and Jails
  • Bipartisan bill would ban high-cost loans
  • FTC issues guide on advertising disclosures for online influencers
  • AT&T to pay $60 million to resolve FTC allegations about mislading promises of unlimited data
  • Access your secret consumer scores
  • Briefing Schedule Set in Supreme Court Showdown over CFPB
  • 23 senators call for investigation into student-loan forgiveness program
  • Clement to Argue for CFPB's Constitutionality
  • Judge holds DeVos, Dep't of Education in contempt for violating order to stop collecting from former Corinthian students
  • Appellate court rules that arbitrators must disclose conflicts of interest
  • Resigning Dep't of Education official calls for student-loan forgiveness

Categories

  • Advertising
  • Arbitration
  • Auto Issues
  • Book & Movie Reviews
  • Books
  • CL&P Blog
  • CL&P Roundups
  • Class Actions
  • Conferences
  • Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
  • Consumer History
  • Consumer Law Scholarship
  • Consumer Legislative Policy
  • Consumer Litigation
  • Consumer Product Safety
  • Credit Cards
  • Credit Reporting & Discrimination
  • Debt Collection
  • Federal Trade Commission
  • Food and Nutrition
  • Foreclosure Crisis
  • Free Speech, Intellectual Property & Consumer Issues
  • Global Consumer Protection
  • Identity Theft
  • Internet Issues
  • Law & Economics
  • Other Debt and Credit Issues
  • Predatory Lending
  • Preemption
  • Privacy
  • Student Loans
  • Teaching Consumer Law
  • Television
  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • Unfair & Deceptive Acts & Practices (UDAP)
  • Web/Tech
  • Weblogs

Archives

  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019

December 2019

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31