In connection with the petition to ban pre-dispute consumer arbitration agreements pending before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “forced arbitration,”...more
4/16/2024
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Congressional Investigations & Hearings ,
Congressional Review Act ,
Consumer Financial Contracts ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Rulemaking Process
Recently, 93 members of Congress (all Democrats) signed a letter in support of the pending Petition for Rulemaking filed by consumer advocacy groups in September that would prohibit pre-dispute consumer arbitration clauses...more
12/19/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Class Action ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Financial Contracts ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Petition for Rulemaking ,
Pre-Dispute Arbitration
Recently, Professor Sovern replied to our blog post that commented on the letter that he and 160 other law academicians submitted to the CFPB in support of the pending Petition for Rulemaking that would prohibit pre-dispute...more
We previously reported and released a podcast episode on comments that we and Professor David Sherwyn of Cornell University submitted in opposition to the Petition for Rulemaking filed by a number of consumer advocacy groups...more
12/7/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Contract Disputes ,
CRA ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Contracts ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rulemaking Process
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
PLI’s 25th Annual Consumer Financial Services Institute will take place on March 23-24, 2020, in New York City (and by live webcast and groupcast in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and New...more
2/4/2020
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Banks ,
Blockchain ,
Class Action ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Deregulation ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
FDIC ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Innovative Technology ,
Madden v Midland Funding ,
OCC ,
Regulatory Standards ,
TCPA ,
True Lender ,
UDAP
On January 17, 2020, the Ninth Circuit denied the defendants’ petitions for panel and en banc rehearing in the Blair v. Rent a Center appeals, setting the stage for possible U.S. Supreme Court review of the California Supreme...more
1/21/2020
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
AT&T Mobility v Concepcion ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
En Banc Review ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Petition For Rehearing ,
Preemption ,
Public Policy ,
The McGill Rule
The CFPB has filed an amicus brief in the Maryland Court of Appeals urging the court to affirm the decision of the Court of Special Appeals reversing the trial court’s approval of a settlement agreement in a class action...more
12/9/2019
/ Amicus Briefs ,
Appeals ,
Class Action ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Insolvency ,
Negligent Misrepresentation ,
Oral Argument ,
Qualified Settlement Funds ,
Release of Liability ,
Reversal ,
Settlement ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Settlement Negotiations ,
Statutory Violations ,
Structured Settlements ,
UDAAP
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently released its preliminary report on two studies it conducted to help understand the effectiveness of class action settlement notices and to “develop information to help improve...more
This past Friday, by a vote of 225-186, the House passed H.R. 1423, the “Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act.” A Senate companion bill (S. 610) was introduced in February 2019 and referred to the Senate Judiciary...more
9/23/2019
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Fair Access to Investment Research Act of 2017 (FAIR Act) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FRCP 23 ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Pending Legislation ,
Pre-Dispute Arbitration ,
Presidential Veto ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Service Contracts
In a precedential opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit concluded that a plaintiff in a class action complaint had Article III standing and was properly awarded summary judgment when a debt collector sent...more
In a unanimous decision that will make it easier for plaintiffs in California state courts to obtain class certification, the California Supreme Court ruled that the ascertainability requirement for certification of class...more
The recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirming the district court's judgment imposing more than $61 million in damages against Dish Network for its vendor's violations of the Telephone...more
6/11/2019
/ Appeals ,
Article III ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Damages ,
Dish Network ,
Do Not Call List ,
Standing ,
TCPA ,
Telemarketing ,
Third-Party Service Provider ,
Treble Damages ,
Willful Violations
Last Tuesday, I had the great privilege of testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee at its “Arbitration in America” hearing. ...more
In a precedential opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit concluded that because the named plaintiff in a class action complaint failed to allege a concrete injury...more
4/2/2019
/ Appeals ,
Article III ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Debit and Credit Card Transactions ,
FACTA ,
Identity Theft ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
J Crew ,
Retailers ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing ,
Statutory Violations
The parties in Madden v. Midland Funding, LLC. have filed a joint motion with the New York federal district court seeking preliminary approval of a class settlement....more
3/19/2019
/ Charge-Off ,
Class Action ,
Debt Buyers ,
Debt Collection ,
Debt Collectors ,
FDCPA ,
Madden v Midland Funding ,
National Bank Act ,
OCC ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Settlement Negotiations ,
True Lender
Democratic lawmakers have introduced several new bills to prohibit the use of mandatory arbitration provisions, ranging from bills that broadly target consumer transactions to bills that target schools that receive Title IV...more
3/5/2019
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Borrower Defense Rule ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Higher Education Act ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Title IV
Relying on the California Supreme Court's 2017 decision in McGill v. Citibank, class action plaintiffs increasingly have sought to circumvent class action waivers in arbitration agreements by filing lawsuits in California. ...more
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has become the first federal district court to require parties to class action settlements to publicly disclose claims rate data as part of a post-distribution...more
While the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has often found that state limitations on arbitration agreements are not in conflict with the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), a recent ruling there confirms that...more
According to a forthcoming article by Professors Andrea Chandrasekher and David Horton in the California Law Review, more consumers and their lawyers would take advantage of individual arbitration if states enacted...more
Having lost the battle to prohibit class action waivers in consumer arbitration agreements, consumer advocates have embarked on a new crusade....more
8/30/2018
/ Arbitration ,
Bylaws ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Corporate Charters ,
Corporate Governance ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Preemption ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Shareholder Litigation
Having lost the battle to prohibit class action waivers in consumer arbitration agreements, consumer advocates have embarked on a new crusade....more
8/29/2018
/ Arbitration ,
Bylaws ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Corporate Charters ,
Corporate Governance ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Preemption ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholder Litigation
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis was extended by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit last week in Gaffers v. Kelly Services, Inc. ...more
Ruling in a class action brought against Uber Technologies, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently held that the company's arbitration clause could not be enforced because it was not "reasonably...more
7/3/2018
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Click-Through Nexus ,
Conspicuous Publication Rule ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Dismissals ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Motion to Compel ,
Online Contracts ,
Terms of Service ,
Uber