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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: 15.1/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 11:13:04

GM Bankruptcy Sale Agreement Amended to Cover Product Liability Claims

Posted on June 28, 2009
A number of news sources are reporting that the GM bankruptcy sale agreement has been amended to assure that the new company emerging from bankruptcy will be liable for product liability claims. As the New York Times story puts it:...

Read the GM Bankruptcy Objection Filed by Consumer Groups

Posted on June 28, 2009
Earlier today, we posted materials concerning the amendments to the GM bankruptcy sale that will save future product liability and lemon law claims. That post neglected to say that these amendments largely redress objections in the bankruptcy case made by...

NHTSA Recalls for May 2009

Posted on June 27, 2009
Check out the the auto safety recalls from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for May 2009.

The Role of Predatory Lending in the Collapse of Detroit

Posted on June 26, 2009
by Laura MacCleery After listening to a stirring speech by Professor Elizabeth Warren of the Senate Congressional Oversight Committee on the bailout last Saturday at the American Constitution Society convention, I was struck by the many similarities between credit card...

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House Financial Services Committee Holds Hearing on New Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Posted on June 25, 2009
The Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing regarding the establishment of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Go here to see a webcast of the hearing and the written testimony of a range of...

Ninth Circuit Cleans Up Its Own Section 230 Mess ? Motions to Dismiss Are Allowed Again

Posted on June 25, 2009
The Ninth Circuit has retracted some of the dangerous dictum in its recent decision in Barnes v. Yahoo!, discussed in this blog last month here and here. The panel opinion had asserted ? in dictum which, under Ninth Circuit procedure,...

Peanut Butter and the Proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Posted on June 24, 2009
by Jeff Sovern Once upon a time, in a not-so-distant country, peanut butter sales were regulated in a distinctive way. Grocery stores that sold peanut butter were regulated by one agency; supermarkets by another agency; and convenience stores that sold...

Judge Sotomayor's Record in Business and Consumer Cases

Posted on June 24, 2009
by Deepak Gupta The Alliance for Justice has issued a report on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's record in business and consumer cases. It covers several topics several likely to be of interest to this blog's readers, including arbitration, deceptive and unfair...

FTC Chair Jon Leibowitz Calls for Ban on "Pay-for-Delay" Drug Settlements

Posted on June 24, 2009
In a speech yesterday, FTC Chair Jon Leibowitz explained that a study done by his agency shows that ending so-called ?pay-for-delay? settlements between brand-name and generic drug companies would save consumers $3.5 billion a year. He called for Congress to...

Foreclosure Crisis Growing?

Posted on June 24, 2009
This article in today's Washington Post explains that mortgages on about 1 million U.S. homes are seriously delinquent, meaning that the home foreclosure crisis is likely to get worse before it gets better.

CPSC Recalls for June 2009

Posted on June 24, 2009
Check out the Consumer Product Safety Commission's product safety recalls for June 2009.

Reg Z Amendments Change Timing of Mortgage Disclosures

Posted on June 23, 2009
by Jeff Sovern Critics of Truth in Lending have long complained about the timing of disclosures in mortgage loans: typically, lenders were not required to provide the final loan disclosures until the closing. That meant that if the interest rate,...

More on the Proposal for the Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Posted on June 20, 2009
by Jeff Sovern The White House proposal can be found here. Ed Mierzwinski has collected many valuable links on the proposal over at the U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog. A couple of random comments: the only statute referred to by name...

FTC Seeking Public Comments for Studies on Consumer Susceptibility to Fraud

Posted on June 19, 2009
Here's an excerpt from one announcement: The FTC intends to conduct two exploratory studies on consumer susceptibility to fraudulent and deceptive marketing. This research will be conducted to further the FTC?s mission of protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive marketing...

Jonathan Zinman on What Borrowers Do When States Limit Payday Loans

Posted on June 17, 2009
Jonathan Zinman of Dartmouth has written Restricting Consumer Credit Access: Household Survey Evidence on Effects Around the Oregon Rate Cap. Here's the abstract: Many policymakers and some behavioral models hold that restricting access to expensive credit helps consumers by preventing...

Supreme Court Takes Arbitration Case

Posted on June 16, 2009
The Supreme Court yesterday granted cert in Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International, which raises the question, according to the SCOTUS Blog, of "when two companies agree to send their disputes to arbitration, may a court order that process to go...

Obama Reported to Want New Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Posted on June 16, 2009
Bloomberg News is reporting that tomorrow President Obama will propose creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency "to protect consumers of financial products with the power to punish offending firms and stripping the Federal Reserve of some of its powers...

Has the FDIC Kept Savers' Returns Down?

Posted on June 15, 2009
On Saturday, Ron Lieber's "Your Money" column in the Times, headlined F.D.I.C.is Watching as a Bank Sets Rates, raised interesting consumer law issues. Ally Bank is an online bank owned by GMAC Financial, a recipient of federal bailout funds. Ally...

Obama Administration Takes Position in Fair Credit Reporting Act Preemption Case Before Supreme Court

Posted on June 13, 2009
U.S. PIRG's Consumer Blog has this excellent post on a petition pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The petition in American Bankers Association v. Brown, No. 08-730, asks whether a California financial privacy law is preempted by the federal Fair...

Sergio Pareja on FTC Regulation of Pyramid Marketing Schemes

Posted on June 12, 2009
Sergio Pareja of New Mexico has written Sales Gone Wild: Will the FTC's Business Opportunity Rule Put an End to Pyramid Marketing Schemes? 39 McGeorge Law Review. Here's the abstract: This article analyzes the anticipated effect of the FTC's Business...

Chrysler's Bankruptcy and Product Liability Suits

Posted on June 11, 2009
Fellow consumer law professor Norman Silber of Hofstra is quoted in a TV news report here about how Chrysler's bankruptcy will bar future product liability plaintiffs from obtaining compensation from Chrysler.

A Bit More About Steering

Posted on June 11, 2009
Yesterday I posted excerpts from an affidavit claiming that Wells Fargo steered lenders who could have had prime loans to more expensive subprime loans. In markets that work properly, steering wouldn't be effective. If, for example, you walked into a...

Wells Fargo and Steering

Posted on June 10, 2009
Commentators have complained for some time that some lenders steered borrowers who could have qualified for prime loans to more expensive subprime loans. Unsophisticated borrowers who don't shop around for loans or don't realize what their loans actually cost them...

William McGeveran on Social Marketing

Posted on June 09, 2009
William McGeveran of Minnesota has written Disclosure, Endorsement, and Identity in Social Marketing, University of Illinois Law Review (2009). Here's the abstract "Social marketing" is among the newest advertising trends now emerging on the internet...

Table of Contents for Summer 2009 Issue of Journal of Consumer Affairs: Special Issue on Consumer's Health Literacy

Posted on June 05, 2009
Here is the table of contents for the Journal of Consumer Affairs, Summer 2009, Volume 43, Number 2 Special Issue on Consumer?s Health Literacy: Editorial Prelude: On Break-up Clich�s Guiding Health Literacy?s Future by Paula Fitzgerald Bone, Karen Russo France...

Reminder from China about the importance of Section 230 immunity

Posted on June 04, 2009
Discussion on a panel about the role of the Internet in social change in China, held at Computers Freedom and Privacy 2009 today, which is the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, provided a stark reminder today of the crucial...

More on Marketing Credit Cards to People Under 21

Posted on May 31, 2009
by Brian Wolfman I blogged here about the new credit card law's provisions aimed at curbing the credit card industry's aggressive marketing practices toward college students and people under age 21. In today's Washington Post, Michelle Singeltary has this column...

What Will Happen to the December 2008 Amendments to Regulation Z?

Posted on May 31, 2009
by Jeff Sovern Last December, various federal regulators adopted new credit card regulations (we blogged about them here, among other places). Some aspects of the new Credit CARD Act (discussed here. as well as other places in the blog), such...

More on the Proposed Financial Product Safety Commission

Posted on May 30, 2009
On Wednesday, the US PIRG Consumer Blog had this post linking to a USA Today editorial supporting a Financial Product Safety Commission. It also links to an opposing point of view from the American Bankers Association.

Judge Sotomayor and Consumer Protection

Posted on May 29, 2009
Norm Silber of Hofstra was kind enough to send me a list of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's consumer protection opinions. They are: CARRIER v. CITIBANK (SOUTH DAKOTA), N.A., 180 Fed. Appx. 296; 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 12447 (2d Cir....

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