On December 5, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States in Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer, declined to substantively address a question businesses across the country have been eager to resolve: That is, whether a “tester” plaintiff has standing to sue a public accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), despite having no intention of ever visiting the business.… Continue Reading

On December 13, 2023, the Congressional Research Service issued a report titled How the Credit Card Competition Act of 2023 Could Affect Consumers, Merchants, and Banks highlighting potential issues for Congress. 

As we previously blogged, Senator Dick Durbin and Representative Lance Gooden introduced “The Credit Card Competition Act of 2023” (a/k/a Durbin 2.0) to regulate interchange fees on credit cards by requiring certain credit card issuers with over $100 billion in assets to enable at least two credit card networks on their credit cards, and at least one of those networks must be a network other than Visa and Mastercard.… Continue Reading

Yesterday, by a vote of 4-1, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) adopted a new rule amending its regulations implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to close what it refers to as the “lead generator loophole.”  The new rule represents a major change for the online lead generation industry, including comparison shopping websites, by requiring lead generators to obtain consumer consent to receive robocalls and robotexts from one seller at a time, rather than having a single consent apply to multiple sellers at once.  … Continue Reading

A California federal district court recently granted the motion for summary judgment filed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) in the lawsuit filed by an advocacy organization seeking to enjoin the DFPI from enforcing its final regulations (Regulations) implementing California’s commercial financing disclosure law.  SB 1235, which was signed into law in 2018, requires consumer-like disclosures to be made for certain commercial financing products, including small business loans and merchant cash advances. … Continue Reading

On December 8, 2023, oral arguments were held before a three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in the CFPB v. Townstone Financial case, in which the CFPB alleges that Townstone Financial, a non-bank mortgage company (Townstone), engaged in redlining in the Chicago area in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).… Continue Reading

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 signs of abating.

In Part II, we first look at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s advisory opinion on fees charged by large banks and credit unions to respond to information requests, including the Bureau’s discussion of non-fee obstacles such as chatbots that could unlawfully impede consumers’ ability to make an information request. … Continue Reading

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 consumer arbitration clauses and permit only post-dispute clauses. 

In response, we would like to acknowledge that two of Professor Sovern’s statements are accurate. … Continue Reading

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. 

The majority of the rulemakings listed in the agenda are being conducted as part of the FTC’s systematic review of all of its regulations and guidelines on a rotating basis. … Continue Reading

As we reported, the CFPB just released its Fall 2023 rulemaking agenda as part of the Fall 2023 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.  

I have been contacted by many clients who have asked me whether we should read any significance into the fact that the anti-arbitration Petition for Rulemaking submitted to the CFPB by a consortium of consumer advocacy groups on September 13 is not mentioned in the new rulemaking agenda. … Continue Reading

On December 7, 2023, Atlantic Union Bank (the “Bank”) entered into a consent order with the Consumer Financial Protections Bureau (CFPB) related to its in-person and telephone overdraft opt-in sales practices during 2017-2020. The settlement requires the Bank to refund affected consumers $5 million in overdraft fees and pay a $1.2 million civil money penalty to the CFPB.… Continue Reading