Senate Kills Rule to allow Consumers to sue banks

Pence Breaks Tie as Senate Votes to Kill Rule Allowing Class-Action Suits Against Banks

This means the wrongdoing of Wells Fargo and data breaches like at Equifax can be shielded through forced arbitration.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/pence-breaks-tie-senate-votes-kill-rule-allowing-class-action-n814021

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Sweet!

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Banks never do anything wrong.

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It’s also permanent. CFPB can’t change it back:

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I think you misread the subject line.
Also @Argyll screwed up the subject line, which made it easier to misunderstand.

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Sounds like the lawyers would do the MOST crying since they typically get most of the value from a “class” action lawsuit. Consumers always get screw.

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Not necessarily. Despite consumers getting a small payout amount, the class-action suit is likely to make banks wary of taking advantage of customers again in the same manner. It makes it legally clear their actions were harmful and probably cost consumers money.

So consumers do gain in the long run.

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If a bank improperly takes $8 from 30 million customers and refuses to issue a refund upon request, it’s very unlikely that any of those customers will pursue small claims or arbitration just for $8. But the bank profited $240M. The only way to stop something like this would be through a class action, but now you can’t, because your agreement with the bank prevents you from joining others in a suit.

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Class action does little for the average consumer, however, the arbitration rule is designed for screw consumer over.

Bloomberg had a good article on how to fix it but I can’t find it online… from what I can remember…

  • Limit the amount lawyer takes.

  • make loser pay.

  • Make arbitration result public.

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I’ve seen lots of people trying to relate this to Equifax, but how is that affected?
I can’t sue Wells Fargo since I agreed to arbitration when I signed up with them; however, I have no direct business relationship with Equifax so where would forced arbitration come into play with them (unless I foolishly agreed to it)?

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I think the Equifax tie is from when they tried to slip an arbitration cause into the fine print when you signed up for credit monitoring after their data breech. They walked that back when everyone screamed bloody murder. ooops just a mistake!

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