Unfairness, Deception, Warranties, Vehicles

This article describes how state unfair and deceptive acts and practices (UDAP) statutes offer a powerful tool to combat private companies’ financial exploitation of incarcerated people and their loved ones, such as price gouging, unfair contracts, and denial of free services to force paid services. The article explains how UDAP statutes have been and can be used, as well as potential obstacles to their use.

In 2024 the FTC issued nine new or revised rules—more than any year in decades. This article summarizes each of these nine rules and their present status. The article also lists four especially noteworthy already existing FTC rules. The article sets out the major implications for individual or class litigation of each listed rule.

This article lists 12 ways to recover for used car defects despite the dealer selling the car “as is.” Four ways provide strong consumer remedies even when an “as is” disclaimer is effective, and eight ways allow for warranty coverage despite the attempted warranty disclaimer. Also listed are shortcut ways to investigate for hidden vehicle defects and tips for used car defect litigation.

A May 26 California Supreme Court decision is the most important interpretation of the FTC Holder Rule in 45 years, setting out in detail reasons why the rule does not cap a consumer’s attorney fee award against the creditor. This article describes the decision’s significance to consumer litigation, explains how the ruling applies in other states, and lists twelve other important features of the FTC Holder Rule.

Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices (10th ed. 2021) (1,056 pp.) is now available in both print and digital format on the NCLC Digital Library. This is an essential revision of the most important consumer law statute in all 50 states, adding thousands of new federal and state cases since the last edition. Learn more and read Chapter One for free here.

The Supreme Court’s March 29 decision in Expressions Hair Design may spark increased First Amendment challenges to consumer protection regulations. This article explains why the Court’s decision and prior precedents weigh against such challenges.

A July 6, 2020 Supreme Court decision in Barr applies the same Telephone Consumer Protection Act restrictions on robocalls to collect government debt as apply to other robocalls. Otherwise the exemption for government debt would unconstitutionally favor one form of speech content over another. This article examines the ruling’s implications for litigation involving robocalls to collect government debt, other robocall litigation, and even First Amendment litigation regarding other consumer statutes.

A recent Supreme Court decision in Cochise Consultancy is favorable for private litigation under the federal False Claims Act (FCA). This article explains how the decision also underscores that FCA litigation has a number of advantages to challenge consumer abuses compared with class actions under traditional consumer causes of action.

The DC Circuit’s October 11 decision in PHH Corp. that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unconstitutional will have far more limited impact on the agency than one might presume, as explained in this article.

On May 28, 2015, the FTC announced new changes to its rules under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act that, effective July 20, 2015, will significantly aid private consumer warranty litigation. The details and impact of the new rules are reflected in revised versions of Chapters 2 and 13 of NCLC’s Consumer Warranty Law, now available on-line. Chapter 2 is also fully updated with all the latest Magnuson...