In 2011, the FTC requested public comment regarding its interpretations, rules, and guides issued under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. After four years of hard work, the FTC today issued a press release headlined “FTC Will Keep Consumer Product Warranty Rules in Current Form with Some Modifications.”
Latest Posts
| 05.22.2015 |
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| 05.19.2015 |
One tactic often used with varying degrees of success to thwart putative class actions brought under various federal statutes is to file an early offer of judgment under Rule 68 that provides the named plaintiff or plaintiffs complete relief in an effort to moot the putative class claims at the inception of a class case. |
| 05.13.2015 |
If you regularly read this column, you know that one of the things we spend a lot of time discussing is working appropriate protections into your contracts. Plaintiffs’ attorneys understand that, and often try to work around those protections by restyling breach of contract or breach of warranty actions as tort claims – that is, claims for negligence or fraud or the like. |
| 05.04.2015 |
The answer lies in the details of the underlying contract and the details of the underlying insurance policy. Today more and more companies are focusing on risk transfer mechanisms within the contracts they have with their vendors, suppliers, contractors and sub-contractors. |
| 04.27.2015 |
File this one under “does your warranty really say what you think it says?” |
| 04.23.2015 |
I recently wrote about a decision from a federal district court in Alabama that sidestepped the Eleventh Circuit’s Crawford decision by finding that the Bankruptcy Code (the “Code”) and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) were in irreconcilable conflict, and the FDCPA gave way to the Code on the question of whether the mere act of filing a proof of claim on a stale debt in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy violated the FDCPA. |
| 04.15.2015 |
Beware union organizers loitering around your premises! |
| 04.06.2015 |
Class actions alleging technical violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) against employers who obtain consumer reports on job applicants are all the rage, generating large settlements and headlines (at least in legal circles). |
| 04.03.2015 |
If you’re like many manufacturers, you have no dealings with the end user of your product. Rather, you sell to a distributor or other intermediate seller, who then sells your product to the end user. We have previously discussed disclaiming your implied warranties against your intermediate buyer and whether that disclaimer travels “downstream” to the end user, but we haven’t addressed whether a disclaimer made by the intermediary can protect you in a suit by the end user if, say, you failed to disclaim your implied warranties yourself or if for some reason they are not effective against the end user. |
| 04.02.2015 |
In the case of Isaac, et al. v. RMB, Inc., et al., No. 14-11560 (11th Cir. March 17, 2015), the Eleventh Circuit recently upheld summary judgment in favor of a debt collector based on the affirmative defense of bona fide error. The case presents a good opportunity to see what type of evidence is needed to prevail on the defense. |