'This was the Wells Fargo Immunity Act': Consumers lose the right to sue companies
Vice President Mike Pence speaks on tax reform at the American Enterprise Institute, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
“Tonight’s vote is a giant setback for every consumer in this country,” said Richard Cordray, the CFPB director, in a statement. “As a result, companies like Wells Fargo and Equifax remain free to break the law without fear of legal blowback from their customers.”
“The bill was entirely and exclusively supported by the [finance] industry,” said F. Paul Bland, an attorney at Public Justice, a consumer group. “Every group that represents consumers was strongly against the bill.”
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Bland listed special interest groups that opposed the bill: armed service member groups, senior citizen groups, civil rights groups. “Lots of polling said both Republicans and Democrats oppose the bill by heavy margins,” said Bland. “This was the Wells Fargo immunity act. It’s essentially a bailout for those companies.”
For Wells Fargo, Equifax, and other companies that behave badly on a major scale, preventing consumers from banding together to seek justice is a major boon that could save these companies from an unknowable amount of damages.
According to Bland, without class-actions, most consumers will not take action. “The argument that individual arbitration is better for consumers is laughable,” he said. “Look at Equifax: 145 million people. Each of them are supposed to separately file an individual arbitration for themselves? How many of them will even be able to find the American Arbitration Association’s website?”
Screw the consumer (citizen) it's the way of politicians and bigly biz.
Its interesting that this story seems to have slipped under the radar.
Keep your eye on the ball. It's obvious that people are more interested in the latest Trump tweet than a change that could have a dramatic affect on our ability to get regress against big business.
It's been that way since day one of President Trump. The media doesn't care to actually report about anything else. Most people don't even know what Trump has accomplished so far, and the media makes sure no one knows with their obsession with "Gotchya Reporting", although the media may not care. Lot's are going on in Washington right now. Reference this report. Trump tweeted again though. That's the important part.