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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….
Wyndham Case Challenges FTC’s Authority Over Cybersecurity
June 12, 2013
Wyndham Case Challenges FTC’s Authority Over Cybersecurity
By: Ifrah Law
Over the past decade the Federal Trade Commission has brought cybersecurity enforcement actions against various private companies, imposing tens of millions of dollars in monetary penalties and requiring companies to maintain more stringent data-security practices. No company has ever challenged the FTC’s authority to regulate cybersecurity in this way in court – until now. On June 17, 2013, a federal court will finally get a…
FTC: Data Brokers That Compile Tenant Data May Be Covered by FCRA
May 2, 2013
FTC: Data Brokers That Compile Tenant Data May Be Covered by FCRA
By: Steven Eichorn
On April 3, 2013, the Federal Trade Commission issued a press release that marks yet another step in its continuing trend of actions involving data brokers and data providers. As we have noted in earlier blog posts, the agency is making a concerted effort on a number of fronts to enforce the laws that protect consumer data and privacy. The FTC’s current action involves a…
FTC, Rent-to-Own Stores Settle Charges of Spying on Consumers Via Rented Computers
April 26, 2013
FTC, Rent-to-Own Stores Settle Charges of Spying on Consumers Via Rented Computers
By: Ifrah Law
The Federal Trade Commission recently approved nine final orders that settle charges against seven rent-to-own stores and a software design firm and its principals. The charges stemmed from shocking allegations that the companies spied on consumers using computers that the consumers had rented from them. Among other things, the Commission’s complaint alleged that the computers were equipped with software (PC Rental Agent) that used the…
What’s That Charge on My Mobile Phone Bill? The FTC Wants to Know
April 25, 2013
What’s That Charge on My Mobile Phone Bill? The FTC Wants to Know
By: Michelle Cohen
“Cramming” – while it sounds like the experience of being in the middle row of a cross-country flight – actually refers to unauthorized charges on phone bills. Residential and business telecommunications customers have experienced cramming on their wireline bills for years, particularly for premium and other pay-per-call services. And the FTC has brought nearly two dozen cases against those companies. With so many U.S. consumers…
A Q&A With Jeff Ifrah on the FTC’s Latest Draconian Tactics
April 23, 2013
A Q&A With Jeff Ifrah on the FTC’s Latest Draconian Tactics
By: Jeff Ifrah
Some lawyers who deal regularly with the Federal Trade Commission in investigations of allegedly false and deceptive online advertising have noticed that the agency is beginning to take steps in these investigations that are unprecedented and draconian – and that judges seem to be going along. Below is a set of questions and answers with Jeff Ifrah, founding partner of Ifrah Law, on these new…