By: Jay K. Simmons For several years the FDA and FTC have been considering the impact of celebrity endorsers. The FDA is now providing an opportunity for public comment on a proposed study on celebrity endorsers and the explicitness of payment disclosures in direct-to-consumer promotions. As the agency’s January 28,... Continue reading

Jenner & Block has published its third issue of Consumer Finance Observer or CFO, a newsletter providing analysis of key consumer finance issues and updates on important developments to watch. As thought leaders, our lawyers write about the consumer finance sector on topics ranging from artificial intelligence, compliance, data security,... Continue reading

By: Gabriel K. Gillett and Philip B. Sailer California’s new AB-5, which took effect January 1, 2020, revised the state’s worker classification law to make it very difficult to classify a worker as an independent contractor. Under the so-called ABC Test codified in the new law, businesses must show (A)... Continue reading

By: Alexander N. Ghantous New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo recently introduced a number of new legislative proposals in his 2020 State of the State agenda, including proposals that would offer New York consumers increased protections.[1] Additionally, California Governor Gavin C. Newsom also outlined how California will provide additional protections... Continue reading

By: Damon Y. Smith Ever since the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) suspended certain reporting requirements of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule for local governments in 2018, cities and affordable housing developers and lenders have awaited their proposed replacement. After a year of review and... Continue reading

By: Amy M. Gallegos As more and more businesses conduct transactions electronically, courts and practitioners are increasingly faced with questions about the validity and enforceability of electronically signed documents. In consumer law, this issue often arises when a company seeks to enforce an arbitration agreement contained in a document that... Continue reading

2019 was another busy year for the Consumer Law Round-Up. Launched by the firm’s Consumer Law Practice, the blog updates readers on key developments within consumer law and provides insights that are relevant to companies and individuals that may be affected by the ever-increasing patchwork of federal and state consumer... Continue reading

By: Alexander M. Smith In 2017, several plaintiffs began bringing lawsuits in California and New York premised on the theory that “diet” sodas — i.e., sodas sweetened with zero-calorie artificial sweeteners rather than sugar — were mislabeled because the sodas falsely suggested they would help consumers lose weight, even though... Continue reading

On December 23, 2019, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo gave conditional approval to a state ban on firefighting foams containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (known as “PFAS”). PFAS, commonly referred to as “forever chemicals” due to their ongoing persistence in the environment, are a family of man-made chemicals commonly found in a variety of products, including food packaging, cookware, stain-resistant clothing, and, in the case of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), many types of firefighting foams. According to the U.S. EPA, PFAS chemicals are not only “extremely persistent in the environment,” but have also been linked to numerous health conditions including cancer in humans. Continue reading

By: William S. C. Goldstein The long-running saga of Madden v. Midland Funding is entering a new phase. Last week, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) proposed rules that would codify the concept that the validity of the interest rate... Continue reading

By: Alexander N. Ghantous The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced on October 29, 2019, that the final, nine-volume version of the “NIST Big Data Interoperability Framework” (Framework) has been published.[1] The Framework, which was developed by NIST in collaboration with hundreds of experts from an array of... Continue reading

In an article published by Westlaw Journal Securities Litigation & Regulation, Partners Charles D. Riely and Keisha N. Stanford and Associate Logan J. Gowdey explain that the use of big data to analyze market activity is on the rise. But with the opportunities that big data presents comes a complex... Continue reading

Jenner & Block has published its second issue of Consumer Finance Observer or CFO, a newsletter providing analysis of key consumer finance issues and updates on important developments to watch. As thought leaders, our lawyers write about the consumer finance sector on topics ranging from artificial intelligence, compliance, data security,... Continue reading

By: David D. Heckman and Kristen M. Iglesias On November 5, 2019 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers, to provide guidance to social media users that recommend or endorse products in their posts, videos or other content (often called ‘influencers’). Influencers have become big... Continue reading

By: Isabel F. Farhi On October 25, 2019, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) and Department of Health (DOH) jointly sent a letter to UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (UnitedHealth) calling for the company to address its use of an algorithm it uses to make health care decisions, which... Continue reading

By: Benjamin J. Bradford On November 6, a jury in the Eastern District of Texas awarded the United Services Automobile Association (USAA) a $200 million verdict finding that Wells Fargo willfully infringed two of USAA’s patents directed to the “auto-capture” process, which is used by banking customers to deposit checks... Continue reading

By Kate T. Spelman With the close of the California state legislative session on Sept. 14, 2019, the final shape of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)—which is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2020—came into focus. The most recent amendments included carve-outs for business-to-business contracts and employee records,... Continue reading

By: David P. Saunders On October 10, 2019, the California Attorney General surprised many by issuing 24 pages of proposed regulations implementing the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA). After reviewing the proposed regulations, they have left many in the industry shaking their heads. Absent from the proposed regulations... Continue reading

In an article published by Bloomberg, Partners Reid J. Schar and Wade A. Thomson and Associate E.K. McWilliams highlight a recent speech by the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an arm of the Treasury Department. Speaking at an anti-money laundering conference in Las Vegas, FinCEN Director Kenneth... Continue reading

By: Amy Egerton-Wiley On September 18, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) into law, which is intended to reclassify many of the state’s independent contractors as employees. Proponents of the bill claim that the bill rectifies misclassification of employees as independent contractors. Opponents, which include both... Continue reading

By: Alexander N. Ghantous Between 2013 and 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued no fewer than six white papers or reports relating to payday loan protections.[1] On the date of the last report, June 2, 2016, the CFPB issued a proposed rule[2], and on October 5, 2017, a... Continue reading

By: Damon Y. Smith September 13, 2019 is the deadline for comments on HUD’s proposed changes to FHA Lender Annual Certification Statements. The most significant changes include elimination of, inter alia: Broad certification language stating that the operations of the lender conformed to all HUD regulations and requirements; Acknowledgements that... Continue reading

By: William S. C. Goldstein On September 3, 2019, a federal district court in the District of Columbia dismissed, for the second time, a lawsuit brought by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) seeking to block the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) from issuing national bank... Continue reading

By: Olivia Hoffman The Eleventh Circuit recently decided a case that raised the bar for pleading injury under the Telephone Consumer Privacy Act (TCPA), 47 U.S.C. § 227, noting its disagreement with an earlier decision from the Ninth Circuit on the same issue and creating a possible roadblock for future... Continue reading

Earlier this month, the CFPB posted a widely reported-on blog entry on the benefits of using alternative data in lending decisions. The CFPB blog post provided an update to the public on the agency’s first and only no-action letter, issued to Upstart Network, Inc. in 2017. Continue reading