Top 10 of 2019: The Year’s Most Popular Consumer Law Round-Up Posts
01/06/2020
2019 was another busy year for the Consumer Law Round-Up. Launched by the firm’s Consumer Law Practice, the blog updates readers on key developments within consumer law and provides insights that are relevant to companies and individuals that may be affected by the ever-increasing patchwork of federal and state consumer protection statutes. In 2019, the Consumer Law Round-Up published 44 posts on a wide array of topics.
Below is a list of the 10 most popular posts of the year.
#1 Regulators Continue to Focus on the Use of Alternative Data
In a July article published by Law360 (and reprinted in our Consumer Finance Observer periodical), our lawyers highlighted the increasing focus of government enforcement authorities on how companies are using “alternative data” in making consumer credit decisions. For example, the article highlighted that – as stated in a June 2019 fair lending report from the CFPB – “[t]he use of alternative data and modeling techniques may expand access to credit or lower credit cost and, at the same time, present fair lending risks.” Regulators have continued to focus on this area...Read more
#2 Eleventh Circuit Rules: Receiving Text Message Was Not Injury Under the TCPA
The Eleventh Circuit recently decided a case that raised the bar for pleading injury under the Telephone Consumer Privacy Act (TCPA), 47 U.S.C. § 227, noting its disagreement with an earlier decision from the Ninth Circuit on the same issue and creating a possible roadblock for future plaintiff classes seeking to assert claims under the TCPA. In Salcedo v. Hanna, the Eleventh Circuit held that “receiving a single unsolicited text message” in violation of the TCPA was not a “concrete injury” sufficient to confer standing...Read more
#3 New York SHIELD Act Expands Data Security and Breach Notification Requirements
On July 25, 2019, New York enacted the Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act (SHIELD Act), which significantly amended the state’s data breach notification law to impose additional data security and data breach notification requirements on covered entities. Under the new law, the definitions of “private information” and “breach of the security system” have been revised in ways that broaden the circumstances that qualify as a data “breach” and could trigger the notification requirements...Read more
In recent years, the Supreme Court has issued many decisions about arbitration, including the enforceability of arbitration agreements and employment agreements that bar classwide arbitration. In July, the Eighth Circuit issued a decision in a case involving those issues, holding that an employment agreement’s arbitration clause mandating individual arbitration was unenforceable. Shockley v. PrimeLending, -- F.3d. --, 2019 WL 3070502 (8th Cir. 2019). The arbitration clause provided that the employee and the company agree to...Read more
#5 En Banc Ninth Circuit Rejects Compelled Commercial Speech Ordinance on First Amendment Ground
On January 21, 2019, the en banc Ninth Circuit unanimously struck down San Francisco’s ordinance requiring warnings on ads for certain sugary beverages as a violation of the First Amendment. In American Beverage Ass’n v. City and County of San Francisco, No. 16-16072, the court held that the Ordinance is an “unjustified or unduly burdensome disclosure requirement[] [that] might offend the First Amendment by chilling protected commercial speech.” Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel...Read more
#6 DC Court Again Dismisses Challenge to OCC’s FinTech Charter, Splitting with SDNY
On September 3, 2019, a federal district court in the District of Columbia dismissed, for the second time, a lawsuit brought by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) seeking to block the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) from issuing national bank charters to certain non-bank financial technology (FinTech) companies. Conference of State Bank Supervisors v. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, No. 18-cv-2449, slip op. at 1-6 (D.D.C. Sept. 3, 2019) (CSBS II)...Read more
#7 Crypto Corner – Updates on Cryptocurrency
In the first half of 2019, the “crypto-winter” that had set in during 2018 appeared to see signs of a thaw, albeit with new regulatory developments and controversy continuing to characterize the space. On the regulatory front, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued more detailed guidelines for companies seeking to sell digital tokens. The 13-page “Framework for ‘Investment Contract’ Analysis of Digital Assets” provides a detailed analysis of the factors relevant to the Howey test that the SEC uses to determine the existence of a security (and all that designation entails)...Read more
#8 SDNY Decision Blocks National Bank Charters for FinTech
In May, a federal district court in New York handed a win to the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) in its long-running, closely watched suit seeking to block the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) from issuing national bank charters to non-bank financial technology (FinTech) companies that don’t receive deposits. Judge Victor Marrero denied most of OCC’s motion to dismiss and found the agency’s interpretation of the National Bank Act, 12 U.S.C. § 21 et seq., to be unpersuasive...Read more
#9 Second Circuit Creates Split on Investment Company Act Private Right of Action
In a decision issued on August 5, 2019, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit created a split with other courts, including the Third Circuit, on the issue of whether there is a private right of action for rescission under the Investment Company Act (ICA). The Second Circuit held that, based on the text of the statute and its legislative history, “ICA § 47(b)(2) creates an implied private right of action for a party to a contract that violates the ICA to seek rescission of that violative contract.” Oxford University Bank v. Lansuppe Feeder Inc., No. 16-4061 (2d Cir. Aug. 5, 2019), Slip op. 23...Read more
#10 The CFPB Rolls Out New Regulations for Debt Collection
Debt collectors have for years sought guidance on how and when digital messages could be sent to contact consumers. On May 7, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a notice of proposed debt collection regulations that would provide that guidance. The new regulations would expand the potential avenues by which debt collectors could contact consumers and would establish a host of other regulations that would alter debt collection practices. The proposed rulemaking announced by the CFPB is more than 500-pages long and would be the first substantive rules...Read more
Posted by Jenner & Block LLP at 11:39 AM | Permalink