Today’s podcast features Stephen Calkins, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit and former General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”).

President Trump recently fired, without good cause, the two Democratic members of the FTC, leaving only two Republican members as commissioners. He did this even though the FTC Act provides that a commissioner may be fired by the President only for good cause and that the commission is to be governed by a bi-partisan 5-member commission This is the third time in the past few weeks that Trump has fired without good cause democratic members of other federal agencies; the other two being the National Labor Relations Board (The “NLRB”) and the Merit Selection Protection Board (The “MSPB”).… Continue Reading

On August 11, the CFPB published a circular confirming that covered persons and service providers under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) may violate the CFPA’s prohibition against unfair acts or practices when they fail to adequately safeguard consumer information. However, the lack of clear substantive standards creates uncertainty as to what the CFPB would deem to be adequate data security practices.… Continue Reading

On October 22, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued a policy statement providing further guidance on its enforcement of federal law with regard to negative option marketing. The FTC noted in an associated press release that they are “ramping up” enforcement efforts against companies that “trap consumers into subscriptions.”  The policy statement is intended to “put companies on notice that they will face legal action if their sign-up process fails to provide clear, up-front information, obtain consumers’ informed consent, and make cancellation easy.”… Continue Reading