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Jeff Sovern
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by Jeff Sovern Yesterday, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing titled CFPB Budget Review. You can listen to the webcast here. It seems to be part of the continuing Republican attack on the Bureau. The American Banker reported... Continue reading
Posted yesterday at CL&P Blog
by Jeff Sovern The Supreme Court today granted cert in Mount Holly v. Mount Holly Gardens Citizens in Action, which raises the issue of whether courts can use the disparate impact test in federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) cases. Because... Continue reading
Posted 3 days ago at CL&P Blog
From Dee Pridgen: The Wyoming State Attorney General’s office recently completed its first major in-state enforcement action in recent history against the Sharps Rifle Company. The company was manufacturing a collector's item replica pistol. Sharps took deposits and payments from... Continue reading
Posted 5 days ago at CL&P Blog
Here. The story is about how car makers are using arbitration clauses to defeat consumer protections, including state lemon laws, and keep defects secret. Continue reading
Posted 6 days ago at CL&P Blog
Here. Excerpt: First and foremost, basic consumer protections, such as bankruptcy rights and statutes of limitations on the collections of student debt must be restored. There is no justifiable reason why student loans should be treated unlike any other type... Continue reading
Posted 7 days ago at CL&P Blog
Margaret Jane Radin of Michigan has written An Analytical Framework for Legal Evaluation of Boilerplate. Here's the abstract: This chapter develops an analytical framework that could help legal analysts – especially common law judges – make better decisions about boilerplate... Continue reading
Posted Jun 12, 2013 at CL&P Blog
The report, by the New Economy Project, is titled The Debt Collection Racket in New York: How the Industry Violates Due Process and Perpetuates Economic Inequality. Some excerpts: Over the past decade, the number of debt collection lawsuits filed in... Continue reading
Posted Jun 11, 2013 at CL&P Blog
Here. When consumers see celibrities endorse products on TV, they are likely to believe that the celebrities are being paid. Do consumers have the same reaction to tweets endorsing things? Should celebrities disclose that when they are paid for tweets? Continue reading
Posted Jun 10, 2013 at CL&P Blog
Paul M. Schwartz of Berkeley and Daniel J. Solove of George Washington have written Reconciling Personal Information in the United States and European Union. Herer's the abstract: US and EU privacy law diverge greatly. At the foundational level, they diverge... Continue reading
Posted Jun 9, 2013 at CL&P Blog
On Thursday, the FTC and CFPB held a joint roundtable titled Life of a Debt: Data Integrity in Debt Collection. Journalist Fred Williams has a report at the Taking Charge blog. An except: At Thursday's meeting, [debt buyer and industry... Continue reading
Posted Jun 8, 2013 at CL&P Blog
Lewis A. Grossman of American has written FDA and the Rise of the Empowered Consumer. Here's the abstract: This paper traces the historical evolution of a view of consumers as informed, rational, and rights-bearing decision makers, and the corresponding diminution... Continue reading
Posted Jun 6, 2013 at CL&P Blog
by Jeff Sovern Last week, the Times ran an article about companies that sell consumer data to businesses but won't provide it to the consumers involved. Despite the headline, reprinted above, I thought the article didn't really explain why companies... Continue reading
Posted Jun 1, 2013 at CL&P Blog
by Jeff Sovern Tomorrow's Sunday Times has a series of letters on the issue of whether society needs more regulation or less. One letter, by Dennis Canfield of Western Springs, Ill., opines: The problem with the current state of government... Continue reading
Posted Jun 1, 2013 at CL&P Blog
by Jeff Sovern The report is here. The study identifed "best" and "good practices" and then looked to see if 36 of the largest 50 banks employed those practices (the practices of the other 14 could not be obtained without... Continue reading
Posted May 31, 2013 at CL&P Blog
Here. One possible compromise: create an inspector general for the CFPB. Continue reading
Posted May 30, 2013 at CL&P Blog
by Jeff Sovern Here. One surprise is that the regulator in question is the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is showing still more evidence that it has escaped the clutches of the financial industry, which had captured... Continue reading
Posted May 29, 2013 at CL&P Blog
Fernando López Vicente of the Bank of Spain has written The Effect of Foreclosure Regulation: Evidence for the US Mortgage Market at State Level. Here's the abstact: Do laws to protect borrowers curb foreclosures? This question is addressed by analysing... Continue reading
Posted May 28, 2013 at CL&P Blog
Two Yale heavyweights, Ian Ayres & Alan Schwartz, have written The No Reading Problem in Consumer Contract Law, forthcoming in the Stanford Law Review. Here is the abstract: Instead of attempting to promote informed consumer assent through quixotic attempts to... Continue reading
Posted May 25, 2013 at CL&P Blog
Daniel Schwarcz of Minnesota has written Monitoring, Reporting, and Recalling Defective Financial Products, University of Chicago Legal Forum (2013). Here is the abstract: In recent years, innovations in consumer financial protection have drawn heavily from the law governing the safety... Continue reading
Posted May 24, 2013 at CL&P Blog
Posted May 24, 2013 at CL&P Blog
by Jeff Sovern When mobile phones have GPS devices, as many smart phones do, mobile phone providers can track their customers wherever they take their phones (providers can also track phones lacking a GPS, but less precisely). For an example,... Continue reading
Posted May 22, 2013 at CL&P Blog