Consumer Law

New 50 State UDAP Report Card

By Jon Sheldon

A new report by the National Consumer Law Center: ?Consumer Protection in the States: A 50-State Report on Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices Statutes,? issued February 5, 2009, analyzes and summarizes unfair and deceptive acts and practices (UDAP) laws in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 

The report identifies gaps and weaknesses in the substance, scope, and remedies of these laws.  In some states the UDAP statutes have so many gaps and weaknesses, or have been so severly undermined by judicial decisions, that they are of little or no use to consumers.

The report identifies a number of measures that states can take to strengthen consumer protections, including

? enact broader prohibitions on deceptive and unfair acts.

? fill gaps in the scope of UDAP statutes.

? increase penalties for violations.

? eliminate financial barriers and risks that prevent victims from filing UDAP lawsuits.

? lower technical obstacles that impede consumer redress.

The report is available at www.nclc.org, and more particularly at this link.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on February 09, 2009 (boomark / email).