Consumer Confidential: Government May Soon Begin Putting an End to Forced Arbitration Clauses
If you’ve got a credit card, you’ve been forced to kiss away your constitutional right to sue the card issuer. But it’s looking increasingly likely that this is about to change. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is examining so-called arbitration clauses in terms and conditions for financial products. Earlier the month, the head of the bureau, Richard Cordray, sent the strongest signal yet that the regulatory whip soon will...
Health Data Collection Limited
Washington — The Supreme Court says state officials can’t force certain health insurers to turn over reams of data revealing how much they pay for medical claims. The justices ruled 6-2 that efforts by Vermont and at least 17 other states to gather and analyze the data conflict with federal law covering reporting requirements for employer health plans. The case involves Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., which operates a self-insured...
Consumer Confidential: When Collectors Call, Demand Proof of Your Debt
Suzanne Husted went through a rough patch about a decade ago and had to take out a pair of $300 payday loans to get by. She said she paid each back within a couple of months. Now she’s getting calls from two different debt collectors insisting that $2,400 in principal and interest is owed and that she better come across with some scratch or she’ll be dragged into court. “When I ask when I took out the loans, they say it was in 2010...
Consumer Confidential: Supreme Court’s Arbitration Ruling Is Another Blow to Consumer Rights
The U.S. Supreme Court made it clear earlier this month that, regardless of what the Constitution says about a consumer’s right to sue, businesses are absolutely entitled to block people from banding together and taking a dispute to court. It was the court’s latest ruling in favor of arbitration, rather than class-action lawsuits, as a preferred method for resolving issues between companies and their customers — which is exactly how...
Sugar War Ends After Sides Reach Secret Settlement
Los Angeles — The sugar and corn industries ended their billion-dollar bitter battle over sweeteners Friday in a secret out-of-court settlement. Both sides announced the deal that puts an end to a trial that began nearly three weeks ago in Los Angeles federal court pitting sugar against high fructose corn syrup. The arch-rivals sugar-coated their acrimony in a settlement statement that announced their commitments to “practices that...
