Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice

The Federal Trade Commission this week issued its long-awaited rule prohibiting hidden junk fees. The rule focuses on two industries in which surprise fees added at checkout have caused widespread frustration and outrage: ticketing for live events and hotel and other short-term lodging. Though the final rule is narrower than many advocates (including the Center) had proposed in their comments, the rule may as a result avoid some of the hazards -- including a hostile...

The Center and ten other organizations serving low-income consumers filed an amicus brief urging the California Court of Appeal not to import restrictive federal standing law into California’s state courts and instead to reassert California courts’ role as courts of general jurisdiction open to all litigants with a valid cause to assert.

Over the past several decades, federal courts have made it increasingly difficult for potential plaintiffs to...

In case you missed it -- the Center's amicus brief on behalf of economists was along for the ride at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last week. At the oral arguments in National Association of Automobile Dealers v. FTC, the judges and advocates repeatedly referenced our brief, which lent an independent economic analysis in support of the FTC's Combatting Auto Retail Scams (...

With help from the Center and our partner the Student Borrower Protection Center, last week student loan borrowers scored a major victory preserving the Department of Education’s Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a challenge to these programs, which benefit borrowers who have endured years, even decades, of mismanagement of their student loans.

The Center and SBPC filed an...

Yesterday, the Center, along with a cavalcade of prominent consumer, worker and advocacy organizations, filed an amicus brief urging the California Supreme Court to implement recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and reject an arbitration-specific version of equitable estoppel that allows corporate defendants to enforce arbitration clauses against consumers with whom they never signed a contract....

At the urging of the Center on behalf of nine legal services and consumer advocacy organizations, along with the plaintiffs, the California Court of Appeal has ordered publication of its recent decision in Jones v. Solgen Construction, LLC The previously unpublished decision – which may now be cited – provides guidance to courts and litigants in addressing the growing problem of fraud in door-to-door residential solar panel sales.

At...

Last week, a federal court in Los Angeles upheld regulations promulgated by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) that require sales-based financing providers to disclose their products' APR and other costs to borrowers, typically small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs. The Center, along with our co-counsel Public Counsel and fellow amici California Association for Microenterprise Opportunity (CAMEO), Responsible Business Lending...

The Center, along with our co-counsel Public Counsel, California Association for Microenterprise Opportunity, the Responsible Business Lending Coalition, and the Office of Kat Taylor, filed an amicus brief in the Central District of California in support of a California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) regulation requiring sales-based financing providers to disclose their APRs and...

Over the past several years and especially during the pandemic, companies have increasingly offered automatically renewing subscription-based services to their customers. After the initial subscription period (say, a year) for which the customer pays, the company automatically charges the customer for another term. These subscription services include an enormous range of businesses, from shopping sites like Amazon Prime, to entertainment streaming platforms like Netflix, to newspapers and apps and just about any other industry you can name.

Automatic...

It is well established in California that the state’s Lemon Law applies to vehicles that are still under the manufacturer’s warranty, whether those cars are new or used. Or, at least, it was well established until an appellate court in Southern California upended that consensus this spring.

Last week, the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice, joined by nine other national...

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases that will decide the fate of President Biden’s plan to cancel student debt for over 40 million Americans. The two lawsuits, Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown, challenge the Secretary of Education’s statutory authority to issue widespread debt relief under the 2003 Higher Education Relief Opportunities (HEROES) Act. The Center filed ...

Spoiler alert: The consumers win.

The California Supreme Court has decided a significant case upholding the state’s consumer protection statutes against a First Amendment challenge, giving a boost to both advocates for honesty in advertising and Michael Jackson fans.

The case arose when one such fan filed a lawsuit against Sony alleging that three of the nine songs on the posthumous album Michael were not actually sung by the King of Pop. The court of appeal held that the plaintiff’s false advertising claims violated Sony’s free speech rights, a ruling that called into...

The Center joined a coalition of organizations to respond to a request for comments from the CFPB on the proposed rule that will keep information related to human trafficking off of survivors’ credit reports. The prohibition was added as Section 605C to the Fair Credit Reporting Act by the National Defense Authorization act (NDAA) of 2022. The comments generally agree with the CFPB’s proposals, while advocating for a number of tweaks to make the process as smooth as possible for survivors of trafficking. The comments also advocate that the Bureau use its authority under FCRA to...

On March 10, 2021, the Center joined an amicus brief in the Supreme Court of the United States in TransUnion v. Ramirez in support of class action plaintiffs who sued TransUnion because their credit reports were cross-referenced with a terrorist list based only on their names. The Housing Clinic of Jerome N. Frank Legal Services...

Just before the holiday season last year, the Center filed an amicus brief on behalf of Professor Adam J. Levitin of Georgetown Law in People of the State of California, et al. v. The OCC to support a challenge to the OCC’s “valid-when-made” rule. The rule — if allowed to stand — will deliver...

On December 7, 2020, the Center joined a coalition of consumer advocates in an amicus brief filed in support of the Federal Trade Commission in FTC v. AMG Capital Management, a critical case pending before the U.S. Supreme...

The CFPB requested comments on its draft rule regarding debt collection practices under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The Center filed a comment emphasizing the need for those disclosures to be strengthened in order to achieve the goals that the CFPB identified. Read the comment here.