The Supreme Court weakens a key consumer protector – Greeley Tribune
The Federal Trade Commission, the main consumer guardian against unfair and misleading businesses, already has too few teeth when it comes to enforcing the law. On Thursday, a unanimous Supreme Court tore another molar tooth. Following the court's decision to weaken federal law against pesky robocalls, the ruling could lead you to believe that the current court is virulent against the consumer. But that's not the problem; The fact is that Congress leaves too many gaps for regulators to fill. The court identifies issues that lawmakers can easily fix - or rather that it could fix if it were functional. Judge Stephen Breyer's ruling on Thursday related to the case against the FTC owned by AMG Capital Management, an online payday loan company that successfully brought the commission to court in 2012. Like the typical payday lender, AMG had borrowers sign contracts that enabled the company to automatically withdraw funds from their bank accounts when the loans were due in...