Briefs and Comments

Appellate Court Rejects Challenge To Critical Program For Student Borrowers

May 24, 2024

With help from the Center and our partner the Student Borrower Protection Center(link is external), 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...

CFPB Preserved! Center Hails SCOTUS Decision Upholding CFPB’s Independent Funding Mechanism

May 16, 2024

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the independent funding structure of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), ensuring that an agency that has returned more than $20 billion in wrongly-taken money to American consumers in the past dozen years will be able to continue doing the work it was designed to do.

The Court’s ruling rejected a challenge by the payday loan industry to the Bureau’s funding structure. Under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the Bureau requests its annual funding not from Congress — like...

Center Files Amicus Brief Challenging Third-Parties’ Attempts to Enforce Arbitration Agreements They Never Signed

May 7, 2024

Yesterday, the Center, along with a cavalcade of prominent consumer, worker and advocacy organizations, filed an amicus brief (PDF file) 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....

Center Files Amicus Brief Challenging Contract Terms That Strip Consumers Of Their Rights

April 4, 2024

Yesterday, the Center, along with our co-counsel – Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS), California Association for Microenterprise Opportunity (CAMEO), East Bay Community Law Center, Impact Fund, Legal Aid At Work, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and Public Justice – filed an (PDF file)amicus brief (PDF file)...

Victory! Court Upholds California Regulations Protecting Small Businesses from Predatory Lending

December 13, 2023

Last week, a federal court in Los Angeles upheld (PDF file) 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...

Center Files Amicus Brief Supporting Price Transparency in Small Business Lending

October 10, 2023

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 (PDF file) 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...

Center Files Amicus Brief Supporting Greater Access to Justice for Consumers Facing Debt Collection Judgments

July 24, 2023

Last week, the Center, along with our co-counsel Bay Area Legal Aid(link is external) and OneJustice(link is external) and ten other legal services organizations, filed an amicus brief (PDF file) urging the California Supreme Court to ensure that consumers with debt collection lawsuits can have their day in court when they...

Supreme Court Considers Whether Consumers Can Sue The Federal Government for Credit Reporting Violations

November 6, 2023

Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in USDA Rural Development Rural Housing Service v. Kirtz, a case that will decide whether the federal government can claim sovereign immunity as a defense against lawsuits brought under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice, along with the National Consumer Law Center, Public Justice, and the Housing Clinic of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, filed an...

Center Files Comment Supporting FTC Rule That Would Make Subscription Cancellation As Easy as Enrollment

July 7, 2023

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...

Center Deplores Supreme Court Decision Halting Student Debt Cancellation

June 30, 2023

Like so many of you, the UC Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice is dismayed by the decision (PDF file)(link is external) from the U.S. Supreme Court striking down President Biden’s student loan debt relief plan. We join in the deep disappointment of the millions of Americans who hoped for some relief from the burden of student debt, which today eclipses $1.78 trillion dollars and has prevented millions of people from purchasing a home, launching a business, or starting a family.

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