Forced Arbitration Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Americans for Financial Reform

AFR Press Release: More than 100 Lawmakers Call for Swift CFPB Action on Forced Arbitration

“More than 100 U.S. Senators and Representatives are asking the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to move ahead with its efforts to restore the right of consumers to join together to hold corporations accountable when they break the law. In separate House and Senate letters, the lawmakers voice their support for a CFPB proposal that would limit the financial industry’s use of forced arbitration “ripoff clauses,” typically buried in the fine print of take-it-or-leave-it contracts, to block consumers from challenging hidden fees, fraud, and other illegal behavior.”

Letter to Congress: Don’t interfere with proposal to restore consumers’ class-action rights

“This rule is a crucial step to limit big banks’ and other financial companies’ efforts to escape liability if they break the law. Congressional or industry interference with the CFPB’s rulemaking process on forced arbitration would undermine consumer protection for critical financial products and services.”

AFR Statement: Skewed House hearing on arbitration

“Under the terms of the CFPB’s proposal, consumers and companies would remain perfectly free to resolve disputes through arbitration, but it would be a voluntary act on both sides. What the CFPB is seeking to regulate is involuntary arbitration, dictated and controlled by banks and financial companies through take it-or-leave-it contracts with consumers. More specifically, its proposal would bar companies from compelling consumers to sign away the right to join forces to challenge a practice that injures many people at once.”

AFR Statement: A Major Step Toward Financial Industry Accountability

“’These clauses rob people not only of their constitutional right to go to court, but of the right to band together with others who have been damaged by the same corporate misconduct,’ said Lisa Donner, Executive Director of Americans for Financial Reform. ‘Each victim is compelled to go it alone, even if the cost of taking action far exceeds the damages in any individual case. Because the process often bars the parties from going public with their stories, forced arbitration serves as a way for companies to keep evidence of wrongdoing under wraps.'”

Joint Statement: Consumer Advocates Applaud CFPB Arbitration Proposal

“Consumer advocates commend the CFPB for taking this crucial step to limit big banks’ and other financial companies’ efforts to escape accountability for breaking the law, and urge the agency to use the full force of its authority to restore consumers’ right to choose how to resolve disputes with financial institutions in this, and every, context in the final rule.”

AFR Statement: The CFPB Takes a Stand on Class-Action Bans

“Class actions, as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg explained in 1997, create room for “vindication of the rights of groups of people who individually would be without effective strength” to object to wrongdoing. Leaving consumers without “effective strength” is precisely the point of the class-action bans found more and more often in contracts governing student and payday loans, credit and prepaid cards, and other financial products and services.”

AFR/CRL Poll: National Survey Finds Bipartisan Opposition to Forced Arbitration as the Issue Heads for a Vote in the House

With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now in a position to regulate the practice, a new poll shows strong public sentiment against the use of forced-arbitration clauses in consumer finance contracts. The poll demonstrates wide, bipartisan opposition to forced arbitration as the House of Representatives prepares to vote on a multi-agency appropriations bill that would put roadblocks in the way of CFPB action.

Joint Statement: 78,000 Consumers Urge CFPB to End Forced Arbitration

In petitions gathered by AFR and five allied organizations, more than 78,000 consumers urge the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to take swift action against the use of forced arbitration clauses in financial services and products. The CFPB is empowered by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 to ban or limit this anti-consumer device in products under its jurisdiction.

Joint Statement: 58 Lawmakers Call for a Strong CFPB Rule on Forced Arbitration

In a letter to Director Richard Cordray, 58 lawmakers urge the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to use its Dodd-Frank authority to prohibit financial services companies from forcing consumers to resolve disputes in private arbitration instead of court. The CFPB should heed their call, four public-interest groups, including AFR, said today.

Joint Letter: AFR and 105 State, Local and National Groups Call for an End to Forced Arbitration in Consumer Finance

“Few practices are as abusive, unfair, and deceptive as the widespread use of forced arbitration clauses in most consumer contracts, including credit cards, student loans, debt settlement, credit repair, auto financing, and payday loans. Forced arbitration funnels consumers into a private system set up by corporations to protect and hide harmful and unlawful corporate behavior.”