Consumer Law & Policy Blog

Bipartisan bill would ban high-cost loans

In 2006, Congress enacted the Military Lending Act, which protects active duty troops by capping interest rates at 36% and provides other safeguards. Now, some members of Congress want to expand those safeguards to protect everyone from high-interest paydays loans with interest rates as high as 200%. NPR has the story, here.

FTC issues guide on advertising disclosures for online influencers

Yesterday, the FTC released  guide setting forth rules for when and how online influencers should disclose sponsorships to their followers. The guide is here.

AT&T to pay $60 million to resolve FTC allegations about mislading promises of unlimited data

AT&T Mobility and the FTC have settled a case charging that the company misled millions of its smartphone customers by charging them for “unlimited” data plans while reducing their data speeds. FTC filed the case in 2014, alleged that AT&T failed to adequately disclose to its unlimited data plan customers that, if they reach a certain amount of data use in a given billing cycle, AT&T would reduce—or “throttle”—their data speeds after they used a certain amount of data, making it difficult to use certain apps.

Under the settlement, AT&T cannot make any representation about the speed or amount of its mobile data, including that it is “unlimited,” without a prominent disclosure of any material restrictions. In addition, AT&T will pay $60 million into a fund to provide partial refunds to both current and former customers who had signed up for unlimited plans prior to 2011 but were throttled by AT&T. Affected consumers will not be required to submit a claim for the refunds. Current AT&T customers will automatically receive a credit to their bills while former customers will receive checks for the refund amount they are owed.

The FTC's press release, with links ot the complaint and settlement, is here.

Access your secret consumer scores

New York Times journalist Kashmir Hill explains that little-known companies are amassing your data — like food orders and Airbnb messages — and selling the analysis to clients. She also shares information about how to request a copy of the information that these companies have collected about you. The article is here.