Between settlements, fines, legal fees, and loan reductions, Bank of America’s tab for its part in the mortgage meltdown is well over $50 billion, including last week’s record-setting $16.65 billion deal. And yet BofA is still trying to fight a nearly year-old jury verdict involving a scam by Countrywide Financial that sold off oodles of worthless home loans before the housing bubble collapsed. [More]
lawsuits
More Sketchiness Revealed About Retailer That Charges Customers $250 For Threatening To Complain
By 8.28.14
Yesterday we told you about Accessory Outlet, the online retailer that claims to be “the #1 Mobile Accessory wholesaler in the United States” but which also charges a $250 fine for customers who even make the threat of publicly complaining about a bad purchase or requesting a chargeback from their credit card company. We want to update you on some additional shady things we’ve learned since then. [More]
Online Retailer Will Fine You $250 If You Even Threaten To Complain About Purchase
By 8.27.14
If you were put off by KlearGear.com’s ridiculous “Non-Disparagement” fee, which penalizes customers for sharing their bad shopping experiences with the public, another online retailer is apparently trying to go one further, by not only banning customers from saying bad things online, but by also forbidding them from even bringing up the threat of a complaint or a credit card chargeback. [More]
Appeals Court Won’t Hear Aereo’s “We’re A Cable Company” Argument
By 8.22.14
Following its crushing defeat before the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this summer, streaming video startup Aereo tried to stay alive by arguing that since the court said it was acting like a cable company, it should then be considered a cable company. Alas, a federal appeals court has decided not to hear this debate, possibly hammering the final nail into Aereo’s coffin. [More]
Creator Of “Your Baby Can Read” Program Settles False Advertising Charges
By 8.22.14
Almost exactly two years after the Federal Trade Commission accused the people behind the popular “Your Baby Can Read” training program of making deceptive advertising claims, the product’s creator has finally reached a deal to settle charges that he and his company made baseless pronouncements about the effectiveness of the program and that they misrepresented scientific studies to prove these bogus statements. [More]
DOJ Finally Confirms Record-Setting $16.65B Settlement With Bank Of America
By 8.21.14
More than two weeks after it was first reported that the Justice Dept. and Bank of America were coming to terms on a record-setting deal worth nearly $17 billion, the two parties have finally confirmed the details of a settlement that will resolve multiple federal and state claims involving the bank’s bad behavior in the lead-up to the collapse of the housing market. [More]
Wendy’s Worker Claims She Was Fired Over Ovarian Cyst
By 8.20.14
A woman in Alabama has sued the owner of the Wendy’s franchise she worked at for six years before being fired for “job abandonment” earlier this year. She says she didn’t abandon her job, but that she was having an ovarian cyst treated. [More]
Woman Sues GM Over Claims That Car’s Seat Heater Left Her With Third-Degree Burn
By 8.18.14
A 26-year-old Maine woman is suing General Motors after she claims a seat heater in one of its vehicles burned her so badly that she had to get a skin graft and was bedridden for months while she healed. [More]
McDonald’s Employee Who Left Daughter At Park Suing TV Station For Revealing Personal Details
By 8.15.14
When someone is arrested, it’s not uncommon for local media reports to say something like “Bob Smith, of the 1900 block of Main St., was charged with…” but you don’t usually get that person’s full home address and Social Security number. Yet that’s what happened when a TV station in South Carolina posted the full, unedited police interview with a McDonald’s employee who’d been arrested for leaving her 9-year-old daughter at a park while she worked. [More]
Corinthian Colleges Subpoenaed In Possible Criminal Investigation
By 8.14.14
Corinthian Colleges — the company that operates for-profit college chains like Everest, WyoTech, and Heald — is already under investigation by various state and federal regulators, but the company has disclosed to its investors that it may also be the subject of a criminal probe by federal prosecutors. [More]
Pink Slime Plant Reopens Because High Beef Prices Mean There’s A Need For Cheaper Ingredients
By 8.13.14
More than two years after Beef Products Inc. announced it would permanently close three of its four “pink slime” processing plants, the company is reversing course and reopening a Kansas plant. [More]
“Payday Syndicate” Accused Of Charging Illegal Triple-Digit Interest Rates In NY
By 8.12.14
States have usury laws to limit illegal lending from loan sharks and organized crime. Some states’ laws limit interest rates on loans so much that payday lending and other predatory financial products are effectively banned. New York is one such state, and prosecutors there have filed charges against the operators of a “payday syndicate” that allegedly issued loans with illegally high, triple-digit interest rates. [More]
Yelp Reviewers File Class Action Lawsuit, Want To Get Paid
By 8.12.14
Last fall, while we were covering fake Yelp reviews of real businesses and real Yelp reviews of fake businesses, a lawsuit questioning the nature of online reviews in a different way was filed on the West Coast. The lawsuit was dismissed in February, but has since been filed again with different attorneys and a different lead plaintiff. Their argument? Elite Yelp reviewers provide a service to the site, and some reviewers are paid, so all of them ought to be. [More]
Unholy Alliance Of MLB, NHL, DirecTV & Comcast Lose Bid To Derail Fans’ Antitrust Suit
By 8.12.14
A goalie, a shortstop, a satellite dish repairmen, and a Comcast tech all walk into a courtroom (well, the Comcast tech comes a few hours late but tells his boss he arrived on time). This oddball mish-mash of sports leagues and pay-TV giants have been trying to convince a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit brought against them by sports fans unhappy with rules they believe allow the leagues to make a pile of cash by limiting access to out-of-market games. But last week, the judge ruled against the sporty alliance, bringing this case one step closer to trial. [More]
Yelp Accused Of Lying To Investors About Quality Of Online Reviews
By 8.7.14
Since it launched a decade ago, some business owners have grumbled that the online review site Yelp allowed users to post fake, negative reviews. Now a potential class-action suit filed against Yelp accuses the site of trying to mislead investors about the quality of user-generated reviews and the way in which the company screens this content. [More]
Insurance Company Pays Man $21,000 With Buckets Of Loose Change
By 8.6.14
Money is money — but it’s a whole lot easier to receive a bunch of it with a check or even cash, than entirely in loose change. That’s how one California man said an insurance company paid him $21,000 in a legal settlement, dropping off more than 16 five-gallon buckets filled with coins. [More]
For Change Of Pace, Donald Trump Sues To Remove His Name From Buildings
By 8.6.14
Donald Trump has spent his career using his last name as his brand, slapping the T word on many a luxury apartment building, hotel, and casino. But now the Donald is suing to have his famous name removed from a pair of Atlantic City properties that he would rather not be associated with. [More]
Artist Claims Pet Toy Company Made Millions Off Her “Angry Birds” Design Without Paying Her
By 8.5.14
A Seattle artist who designed a line of plush pet toys called “Angry Birds” back in 2006 is now suing the company that sold them, claiming it cut her out of the process — and millions of dollars — when it licensed the design to the makers of the popular Angry Birds game. [More]
