Consumer Fairness Act
Consumer Fairness Act
Small Claims Help Consumers Beat the Banks
If you ever wondered why corporations prefer arbitration, the following video makes one of the reasons pretty clear. In the video, a consumer runs up various unfair overdraft charges and then avails himself of the small claims system to challenge the exorbitant fees. He pays $47.50 in filing fees and spends less than an hour between the bank and the post office. The end result: the bank, Wells Fargo, calls him and settles the case by dropping his charges.
Watch for yourself:
Corporate Double-Speak on Union, Consumer Arbitrations
American Rights at Work recently launched a campaign to highlight big business's double-speak about arbitration. (h/t to AFL-CIO.) The campaign points out Corporate America's differing views on arbitration in two bills: the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and the Arbitration Fairness Act (AFA).
House Committee Holds Credit Card Arbitration Hearing
On Tuesday the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law held a hearing entitled "Federal Arbitration Act: Is the Credit Card Industry Using It To Quash Legal Claims?" (Committee site here.) The witnesses included consumer attorney Mike Donovan, Public Citizen's David Arkush, and Professor Rich Frankel of Drexel Law School.
The House passed a credit card reform measure last week, and the Senate will be taking up their legislation soon. Our position on the issue can best be summed up by this excellent statement by Ed at US PIRG: "[O]wning a credit card company will still be a license to steal, and credit card companies will still be above the law, until we pass the Arbitration Fairness Act." The hearing was very well-attended, particularly on the Republican side, and the discussion was lively. More details after the jump.
Yet Another Harmful Industry Employing Forced Arbitration
Our "Issues" section documents the various ways that companies force arbitration on Americans. These include legitimate businesses as well as shadier industries like payday lending and loans for students at unaccredited, for-profit trade schools. A recent report by Consumer Federation of America has uncovered yet another shady industry using forced arbitration to immunize itself from accountability to its consumers: for-profit identity theft services.
More on these services and their abuse of forced arbitration after the jump...