Consumer Law

Mandatory Binding Arbitration Makes Debt Collection Worse

By Sam Glover

If you take a bad thing—debt collection—and subtract fairness, it gets worse. The FTC sounded off on the problems with combining debt collection and forced arbitration. In fact, the FTC recommending banning arbitration on the mandatory binding arbitration of debt collection disputes:

Such a ban should remain in place until the arbitration process can be shown to be fair, transparent, and as affordable as traditional litigation, and until consumers have a meaningful opportunity to opt out of pre-dispute arbitration without losing access to the credit services they seek. Once these conditions have been met, Congress could lift the ban itself, or it could delegate that authority to the Federal Trade Commission or another appropriate consumer financial protection agency or bureau established in the future.

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Full post as published by Caveat Emptor on July 13, 2010 (boomark / email).