faircontracts
Public Citizen filed a lawsuit against Amtrak challenging the legality of imposing an arbitration provision on its riders as a condition of passage. The arbitration provision, introduced in 2019, states that it “is intended to be as broad as legally possible” applying to “all claims, disputes, or controversies, past, present, or future” for any rider.…
Read MoreVisitors of this website are likely familiar with the power and pervasiveness of forced arbitration clauses. Employers and businesses routinely put clauses into the fine-print of boilerplate contracts that deprive consumers and employees of their right to go to court and instead force their claims to be decided in a secret arbitration proceeding. Often class…
Read MoreThe federal official in charge of handling complaints against the student loan industry resigned in fury on Monday, leveling a series of accusations against his agency — including suppression of a report showing lenders were ripping off college students with “legally dubious account fees.” The step was not a surprise. Seth Frotman, who was student loan…
Read MoreOf all the things Mark Zuckerberg said this week before Congress, I found this the most incredulous: “I would hope that what we do with data is not surprising to people.” Everyone is surprised when they find out what Facebook does with data. I’ve been writing about data hacks and privacy for more than a…
Read MoreComplicated rebates have largely disappeared. They still appear in major appliance purchases, however. (NOTE: This is a free excerpt from my new book: Gotcha Capitalism, 10 years later. A lot has happened in the world of credit cards since 2008. It’s fun to look back….) Gift cards could be pretty diabolical when they burst onto…
Read MoreThe D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has determined that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s current single-director structure is constitutional. In a reversal of an earlier ruling, the decision preserves the current structure of the agency, protecting the CFPB director from removal by the President without cause. PHH Mortgage Corp., a lending company that was…
Read More“Passengers still have to go searching for airfares with a calculator in one hand, and that’s how the airlines like it.” — Chrisopher Elliot of consumer travel site Elliot.org. The Trump administration just helped kill some price tags. That’s bad for consumers, but good for huge, monopolistic airlines. The main thesis behind Gotcha Capitalism is…
Read MoreMove over, resort fees. There’s a new enemy in your quest to get a good deal on a hotel room: The “urban destination charge.” Travelers cramming into New York City to catch a glimpse of the famous Christmas tree outside Rockefeller Center are now getting hit with a relatively new $25-$35 fee, several outlets have…
Read MoreWhile you were busy worrying about health insurance premiums and perhaps Donald Trump’s latest Tweet, the U.S. Senate spat in the face of American consumers this week. In a 50-50 vote that required Vice President Mike Pence to break the tie, the Senate voted to nullify a pro-consumer rule that was more than a decade…
Read MoreCheck out this video made to help spread the word about FairContracts.org and what consumers should watch for in the fine print of boilerplate contracts. Special thanks to those who worked on it especially Lonnie Ray Atkinson and the whole team of Anitek, Aaron Ryan, Jayson Bimber, Jonathan Baldizon, and Nicole Timmerman. Fine Print from…
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