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Pause Play? CFPB Gaming-Related Rules on Hold
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February 12, 2025
Pause Play? CFPB Gaming-Related Rules on Hold
By: Michelle Cohen
Newly installed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) Director Russell Vought directed agency staff to stop work on agency matters and stay home. The future of many of the CFPB-led initiatives looks bleak, including a recent interpretive rule proposal that would treat video game publishers like payment processors. Background Congress created the CFPB, an independent federal agency, in 2011 in response to the financial crisis of 2007-08. The agency oversees federal financial consumer protection laws and has jurisdiction over a wide range of entities, including mortgage lenders and brokers, student loan issuers, and other financial institutions. In 2024, the CFPB began to focus on an unlikely target – video game companies. The agency started monitoring developments in the video game industry…
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Death of the CFPB and Impact on Consumer Arbitration
February 11, 2025
Death of the CFPB and Impact on Consumer Arbitration
By: George Calhoun
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) has spent years trying to limit provisions that may be placed into consumer contracts, particularly with regard to class-action waivers, arbitration, and damages limitations. In 2015, the CFPB conducted a study of consumer arbitration clauses. Notably, the CFPB’s study found that few class action cases proceed to trial, but in those that do, trial lawyers make $1 million per…
Cancelling Subscriptions Could be Easier, or Maybe Signing Up Will Get Harder
January 15, 2025
Cancelling Subscriptions Could be Easier, or Maybe Signing Up Will Get Harder
By: Jordan Briggs
Drawn in by the appeal of steady revenue, nearly three-quarters of direct-to-consumer companies now include a subscription model.[1] Everything has a subscription these days: video games, groceries, dating apps—you can even subscribe to a service to cancel your other subscriptions.[2] These subscriptions were not deterred from joining their most prominent predecessor (the gym membership) as an age-old punchline about how hard they are to cancel….
The California Consumer Privacy Act: The Who, What, When, Why…and How.
July 10, 2018
The California Consumer Privacy Act: The Who, What, When, Why…and How.
By: Nicole Kardell
Make room Europe: California is taking on the data privacy challenge. For the last year or so, the privacy world has been abuzz with how to implement the E.U.’s General Data Protection Regulation. The buzz died down once GDPR went into effect in late May. But no rest for the weary. A little over a month later, California has jumped into the data privacy challenge…
Cryptocurrency Exchanges Must Navigate An Outdated Regulation System
July 9, 2018
Cryptocurrency Exchanges Must Navigate An Outdated Regulation System
By: Ifrah Law
More consumers are adopting cryptocurrency than ever, but regulators are less enthusiastic. As a result, cryptocurrency exchanges spend unnecessary time and resources working to comply with outdated guidelines. Kraken, which oversees $150 million in daily cryptocurrency transactions, is the latest exchange to experience this problem. In an effort to bring itself into compliance with current Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken recently…
Supreme Court Rules Online Businesses Now Subject to Sales Tax
June 21, 2018
Supreme Court Rules Online Businesses Now Subject to Sales Tax
By: Ifrah Law
In a ruling announced today, the Supreme Court held that online businesses can be subjected to sales tax even in states where they do not have any brick-and-mortar operations. The case, South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., overturns longstanding precedent requiring “physical presence” to subject a seller to state sales tax, representing a big change for e-commerce. In the opinion of the Court, Justice Kennedy gave…
Eleventh Circuit Assumes FTC’s Data Security Enforcement Authority, But Mandates Specificity for FTC Orders
June 20, 2018
Eleventh Circuit Assumes FTC’s Data Security Enforcement Authority, But Mandates Specificity for FTC Orders
By: Michelle Cohen
On June 6, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a landmark ruling in LabMD v. Federal Trade Commission. While the Eleventh Circuit impliedly held that the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has authority to take enforcement action against companies whose unfair practices lead to data security incidents that pose substantial injury to consumers, it severely curtailed the FTC’s ability…
FTC Focuses on Kids’ Geo-Location Devices in Latest COPPA Warnings
May 8, 2018
FTC Focuses on Kids’ Geo-Location Devices in Latest COPPA Warnings
By: Ifrah Law
A public service announcement of yesteryear posed the following question to parents: “It’s 8:00. Do you know where your children are?” Today’s technology allows parents to answer that question regardless of the time of day. That technology, however, has recently drawn scrutiny for violating the parental notice and consent provisions of the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC’s”) Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (“COPPA”). Last week, the…
