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Consumer Law

CL&P Blog

The contributors to this blog are a diverse group of lawyers and law professors who practice, teach, or write about consumer law and policy. Although the blog is hosted by Public Citizen's Consumer Justice Project, the views expressed here are solely those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions with which they are affiliated.

Post Frequency: 21.5/day

Last Entry: May 17, 2013 at 06:45:00

Charles Schwab drops its class-action ban, at least for now

Posted on May 17, 2013
In February, the brokerage firm Charles Schwab won a ruling from a hearing panel of FINRA, the financial industry regulatory authority, invalidating FINRA's rule against class-action bans and allowing Schwab to use a class-action ban in its customer agreements...

CFPB launches Spanish language website

Posted on May 16, 2013
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has launched a Spanish-language website. (To read its English-language homepage go here.)

Judgment reinstated against Wells Fargo in overdraft fee case

Posted on May 16, 2013
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California this week reinstated a $203 million judgment against Wells Fargo for slapping hefty overdraft fees on consumers by manipulating the order in which their charges posted to their accounts in...

Compelled disclosures and the first amendment

Posted on May 16, 2013
That's the topic of "Compelled Disclosures," a new article by law professor Caroline Corbin. Here is the abtract: Courts have faced a wave of compelled disclosure cases recently. By government mandate, tobacco manufacturers must include graphic warnings on their cigarette...

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In class settlement, Ninth Circuit holds that attorney fees must be tied to redemption value of coupons

Posted on May 16, 2013
In In Re HP Inkjet Printers, the Ninth Circuit yesterday reversed the district court?s orders granting final approval to a class-action settlement between Hewlett-Packard Company and a nationwide class of consumers who purchased certain HP inkjet printers, and awarding attorneys?...

Third Circuit Invalidates Recess Appointments

Posted on May 16, 2013
by Deepak Gupta A divided panel of the Third Circuit today joined the D.C. Circuit in holding that President Obama's recess appointments to the NLRB are unconstitutional. The case is NLRB v. New Visa Nursing and Rehabilitation. From the majority...

More on the ticket industry and consumer protection

Posted on May 15, 2013
[Ed. note: Last week, we featured a guest post on ticket industry abuses, which mentioned a group called "Fan Freedom" and StubHub's support for the group. We now post this response from Ted Mermin.] by Ted Mermin [guest post] Thank...

Norm Silber: Undocumented Consumers: Include Consumer Protection in Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Posted on May 15, 2013
In the Huffington Post, with Joseph Sanderson.

Debt collection industry reform efforts in California

Posted on May 15, 2013
As this LA Times story explains, In a lawsuit that echoes the worst abuses of the foreclosure crisis, [California's] top law enforcement official is suing the nation's largest bank, accusing it of using aggressive and illegal tactics to collect credit...

Expanded FTC protection for kids' information online to go into effect July 1

Posted on May 15, 2013
As the Blog of the Legal Times reported, the FTC sent letters to almost 100 companies letting them know about revisions to the regulations implementing the Childen's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a statute that regulates the collection of information...

Watch Senator Franken talk about his plan for a government panel to rate financial instruments

Posted on May 14, 2013
As this CNN piece explains Credit agencies that rate Wall Street's big banks were blamed for playing a pivotal role in the financial meltdown, but those agencies are still being paid for their work by the very banks they rate....

Study on How Judges' Politics Affects Their Application of the Twombly-Iqbal Pleading Rules

Posted on May 14, 2013
Raymond H. Brescia and Edward J. Ohanian, both of Albany have written The Politics of Procedure: An Empirical Analysis of Motion Practice in Civil Rights Litigation Under the New Plausibility Standard, forthcoming in 46 Akron Law Review (2013). Here's the...

Court denies cert in Zinni

Posted on May 13, 2013
Good news: this morning the Supreme Court denied a debt collector's cert. petition in Convergent Outsourcing v. Zinni, a case Greg reviewed in detail last week here.

Lack of diversity in Supreme Court bar

Posted on May 13, 2013
A little off-point perhaps, but this blog often provides information on Supreme Court advocacy and decisions, and so I thought our readers might be interested in this AP story about the lack of diversity among those who argue before the...

Supreme Court decides Dan's City v. Pelkey preemption case in favor of the injured plaintiff

Posted on May 13, 2013
A victory for a plaintiff! The Supreme Court has decided Dans City v Pelkey opinion, unanimously affirming the no-preemption ruling of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Here's the begininng of Justice Ginsburg's opinion, which sums things up nicely: This case...

When Consumer Reports Are Not Used for Credit

Posted on May 13, 2013
by Jeff Sovern We frequently write here about the Fair Credit Reporting Act because of its application to credit reports. But in fact, the FCRA applies to many non-credit transactions. Those transactions typically take one of two forms. In one...

Jon Stewart on MERS and wrongful foreclosures

Posted on May 10, 2013
Here.

More Evidence That Consumers Can't Provide Consumer Protection

Posted on May 10, 2013
by Jeff Sovern Traditional consumer protection rules drew on law and economics models that assumed that consumers were rational and that when consumer markets functioned poorly, all that needed to be done was give rational consumers the ability to protect...

Genesis Aftermath: Can an Email Moot a Plaintiff's Claim?

Posted on May 10, 2013
by Greg Beck As Brian Wolfman previously noted on this blog, the Supreme Court's holding in Genesis HealthCare v. Symczyk?that a defendant's settlement offer to a named plaintiff defeated certification of a collective action?was based on an highly questionable assumption:...

Health care price disparities

Posted on May 09, 2013
Check out this article about some revealing data released this week comparing hospital pricing. For the first time, the federal government [released] the prices that hospitals charge for the 100 most common inpatient procedures. Until now, these charges have been...

Pro Publica investigates intern practices

Posted on May 09, 2013
As Pro Publica explains, "In April 2010, the Department of Labor released a six-point test to help determine whether an internship in the for-profit sector qualifies to be unpaid under federal law. One of the key criteria is that the...

The Hill: Sen. Warren calls for giving student borrowers the same loan rate as banks

Posted on May 09, 2013
Here. Excerpt: The current rate for loans from the window is about 0.75 percent, while students are facing rates of 6.8 percent, Warren said. "In other words, the federal government is going to charge students interest rates that are nine...

Guest Post: "Protect Music and Sports Fans from Ticket Industry Abuses"

Posted on May 09, 2013
by John Breyault, Vice President, Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud, National Consumer League Protect Music and Sports Fans from Ticket Industry Abuses When Beyonce recently announced her highly-anticipated ?Mrs. Carter Show? tour, fans waited eagerly for the moment tickets went...

The "retirement crisis" and some eye-opening data about Americans' savings

Posted on May 08, 2013
The main point of this Washington Post column is to describe the looming danger facing retirees with insufficient savings, and to suggest one possible answer (a supplement to Social Security). But I found the column most interesting for its discussion...

CFPB issues report responding to public input on student loan affordability

Posted on May 08, 2013
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today issued this report entitled "Student Loan Affordability--Analysis of Public Input on Impact and Solutions." The report's executive summary appears after the jump. The agency also issued this companion fact sheet...

Hadeed Carpet Cleaning Seeks to Suppress a Dirty Secret

Posted on May 08, 2013
by Paul Alan Levy You can?t live in the DC area and not encounter the pervasive advertising for Hadeed Carpet Cleaning, from mailed coupons and display advertising in the Washington Post that promise unbelievably low prices, to classic rock broadcast...

FDA proposes to ramp up regulation of tanning beds

Posted on May 07, 2013
by Brian Wolfman Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration issued this proposed order regarding tanning beds. The FDA is proposing to reclassify these ultra violet devices to require more warnings -- including that minors not use them at all --...

CFPB goes after two lawyers in alleged debt relief scam

Posted on May 07, 2013
The Blog of the Legal Times reports that The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today filed suit against two lawyers and two debt relief companies, alleging they charged thousands of consumers illegal advance fees and left some worse off financially...

"The Practice: Class Action Cacophony at the Supreme Court"

Posted on May 07, 2013
That's the name of this short essay by law professor Linda Mullenix on the Supreme Court's recent class-actions decisions in the Amgen, Comcast, and Standard Fire decisions. Here is the abstract: The article surveys the Court?s liberal and conservative divide...

FTC and CFPB to Host Joint Roundtable on the "Life of a Debt"

Posted on May 07, 2013
On June 6, the FTC and the CFPB will co-host a joint roundtable event, "Life of a Debt: Data Integrity in Debt Collection," to examine the flow of consumer data throughout the debt collection process. The event, held at the...