Our podcast today focuses on negative option consumer contracts, i.e., agreements that allow a seller to assume a customer’s silence is an acceptance of an offer. Such contracts are ubiquitous in today’s marketplace.
Today’s...more
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has set oral arguments for Oct. 7 in the challenge of the Federal Trade Commission’s Combating Auto Retail Scams Rule (“CARS Rule”). The petition, filed on January 5, 2024 by the National...more
7/23/2024
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Car Dealerships ,
CARS Rule ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Motor Vehicles ,
Oral Argument ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
Our special guest is Malini Mithal, Associate Director of the FTC’s Division of Financial Practices. In this episode, which repurposes a recent webinar, we review highlights of FTC regulatory and enforcement activity in 2023...more
4/4/2024
/ Advertising ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
CARS Rule ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Cryptocurrency ,
False Advertising ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fees ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FTC Act ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
Our special guest is Richard (“Rick”) Hackett, former Assistant CFPB Director responsible for auto finance regulation and presently a member of the Board of F&I Sentinel, which supports lender compliance in the auto finance...more
Our special guest is Richard (“Rick”) Hackett, former Assistant CFPB Director responsible for auto finance regulation and presently a member of the Board of F&I Sentinel, which supports lender compliance in the auto finance...more
This New Year is setting up to be a momentous one for the consumer financial services industry in the United States Supreme Court. In 2024, the Supreme Court is expected to decide four impactful cases that may hold that the...more
1/3/2024
/ Amicus Briefs ,
Chevron Deference ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
National Bank Act ,
OCC ,
Oral Argument ,
Regulatory Agencies ,
Regulatory Authority ,
SCOTUS
The Federal Trade Commission has released its Fall 2023 rulemaking agenda as part of the Fall 2023 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions....more
This two-part podcast repurposes our most recent webinar on the latest salvo of actions in the Biden Administration’s initiative directed at combatting so-called “junk fees.” Launched in January 2022, the initiative shows no...more
In October 2023, the FTC issued a proposed “Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees” targeting what the FTC refers to as “junk fees.” Our special guest is Stacy Cammarano, Staff Attorney in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection,...more
On November 6, the CFPB filed a notice with the Texas federal district court that it is appealing to the Fifth Circuit the district court’s order granting summary judgment to a group of trade associations in their lawsuit...more
On November 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Jarkesy v. Securities and Exchange Commission, a case in which the respondents are challenging the constitutionality of the SEC’s use of administrative...more
11/7/2023
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Proceedings ,
Amicus Briefs ,
Article II ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Oral Argument ,
Regulatory Authority ,
SCOTUS ,
SEC v Jarkesy ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Seventh Amendment
Last Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee voted to advance President Biden’s nominees to fill the two open Republican Commissioner seats on the Federal Trade Commission: Andrew N. Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak. The...more
Last Wednesday, we published three blog posts about new actions taken by the CFPB and FTC related to the Biden Administration’s war on “junk fees”...more
As part of the White House’s latest round of efforts targeting so-called “junk fees,” the Federal Trade Commission has issued a proposed rule, “Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees.” The proposal follows the FTC’s issuance in...more
10/12/2023
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FTC Act ,
Goods or Services ,
Hidden Fees ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Section 5 ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
Our special guest is Michael Ostheimer, Senior Consumer Protection Attorney in the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices. In June 2023, the FTC updated its guides that set forth the FTC’s position on how Section 5 of the...more
Our special guest is Andrew Nigrinis, PhD, who formerly served as Enforcement Economist for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We first discuss what is meant by “dark patterns” and the types of digital practices...more
Last week, I moderated a live and virtual program at the American Bar Association Business Law Section 2023 Fall Meeting in Chicago. The program was entitled: “U.S. Supreme Court to Revisit Chevron Deference: What the SCOTUS...more
9/11/2023
/ American Bar Association (ABA) ,
Chevron Deference ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
National Bank Act ,
OCC ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
SCOTUS ,
Statutory Interpretation
The CFPB announced this week that it has entered into a proposed settlement of a lawsuit it filed in 2019 in Utah federal district court against a group of defendants who constitute the largest credit repair organizations in...more
9/1/2023
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Credit Repair Services ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FTC Act ,
Section 5 ,
Settlement ,
Statutory Violations ,
Telemarketing ,
Telemarketing Sales Rule
Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices, does not include a private right of action. Our special guest, Professor Myriam E. Gilles of Cardozo Law School, has written a law review...more
Townstone Mortgage (Townstone) has filed its brief in the CFPB’s appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from the district court’s decision in the CFPB’s enforcement action against Townstone. In the...more
8/23/2023
/ American Bar Association (ABA) ,
Chevron Deference ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
ECOA ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
Popular ,
Regulation B
The Biden Administration has launched an initiative directed at combatting so-called “junk fees,” with the CFPB and FTC leading the Administration’s efforts. In Part II of this two-part episode, we first look at CFPB...more
The Biden Administration has launched an initiative directed at combatting so-called “junk fees,” with the CFPB and FTC leading the Administration’s efforts. In Part I of this two-part episode, we first discuss the various...more
The White House has announced that President Biden intends to nominate Andrew N. Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak to fill the two open Republican Commissioner seats on the Federal Trade Commission....more
Less than a week after announcing that it had filed a civil case against Amazon alleging that the company used “dark patterns” to enroll people in its Prime program, the FTC announced that it has entered into a settlement...more
Last week, the FTC filed a civil case against Amazon alleging that the company used “dark patterns” to enroll people in its Prime program. The case continues a pattern initiated by FTC Chair Lina Khan of challenging...more