While Equifax Victims Sue, Congress Limits Financial Class Actions (marketwatch.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a local NBC news report: Stories are starting to pour in about those impacted by last month's massive Equifax data breach, which compromised the private information of more than 140 million people. Katie Van Fleet of Seattle says she's spent months trying to regain her stolen identity, and says it has been stolen more than a dozen times. "I kept receiving letters from Kohl's, from Macy's, from Home Depot, from Old Navy saying 'thank you for your application,'" she said to CNN affiliate KCPQ. But she says she's never applied for credit from any of those places. Instead, Van Fleet and her attorney Catherine Fleming say they believe her personal data was stolen during the massive Equifax security breach... Fleming has filed a class-action lawsuit against Equifax, saying they were negligent in losing private information on more than 140 million Americans... "Countless people, I mean, I've really, truly lost count, and the stories that like Katie's, the stories I hear are heart-wrenching," Fleming said.
But are things about to get worse? Marketwatch reports: It will become harder for consumers to sue their banks or companies like Equifax... The Senate voted Tuesday night to overturn a rule the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau worked on for more than five years. The final version of the rule banned companies from putting "mandatory arbitration clauses" in their contracts, language that prohibits consumers from bringing class-action lawsuits against them. It applies to institutions that sell financial products, including bank accounts and credit cards. Consumer advocates say it's good news for companies like Wells Fargo or Equifax, which have both had class-action lawsuits filed against them, and bad news for their customers... Lisa Gilbert, the vice president of legislative affairs at Public Citizen, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., said the Senate vote shouldn't impact cases that are already ongoing. However, there will "certainly" be more forced arbitration clauses in contracts in the future, and fewer cases brought against companies, she said.

Comments

Because fuck you, that's why.

[Mal-2]

Why do so many people (other than the 1% expecting their tax cuts) continually vote against their own best interests? This is what happens when "punishing" some group is more important to the masses than prosperity. If a rising tide lifts all boats, a falling tide eventually beaches them all, but the aforementioned people don't care so long as "teh gays" hit the shoals before they do.

Re:Because fuck you, that's why.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's sad, really. Scummy admin is scummy. A vote *against* a candidate (or some aspect of their base) is a wasted vote, or at least an admission that your heart is very much in the wrong place. What might really help this country is to get some truly electable third-party candidates in the mix to force runoffs when the normal jackoffs fail to get a majority. This would at least force people to stop and think a little bit longer. Oh yes, and single-issue voters can rot.

Re:Because fuck you, that's why.

[Anonymous Coward]

What you need is to implement an Eriksgata system.
It ensures that you can't win an election by polarizing one part of the nation against another.
Or more specifically, you can win the election but you won't reach power without the minorities feeling that they can at least endure your rule.

Re:Because fuck you, that's why.

[DogDude]

As a 1%er who doesn't need more tax cuts, I can't help but to shake my head at all of the dumb people who vote to make their lives worse.

Re:Because fuck you, that's why.

[Anonymous Coward]

Which political party is the one of "prosperity" that is best for everyone? Certainly not any of the four that presented candidates in the last election.

So who?

Re:Because fuck you, that's why.

[Anonymous Coward]

My interests have not been represented in quite a few years. I am white, heterosexual, have medical insurance provided by my employer(s), college educated with BS and MS degrees in my chosen professional field, widowed, no kids, make too much money to claim lower bracket tax deductions and not enough money to take advantage of the higher bracket tax deductions, and practice no denomination of religious beliefs.

The current administration is somewhat of an embarrassment but compared to the Legislative branch is only an embarrassment. The Executive branch of government has unbreakable terms limits and 4 years is a blink of the eye when it comes to governing the country. Any new executive enters office carrying all the problems his predecessor(s) leaves behind. And almost none of these problems can be solved by executive action. Every executive branch decision can be stopped or reversed by the other 2 branches of government. Even the power to declare war as the CIC of the armed forces needs Congressional Approval within 90 days and if that approval does not come than any and all funding of the war can be stopped.

What is really embarrassing is the raging mob of US citizens, on all sides, are to dense to even identify the true culprits who have caused damn near every problem we as a society face today. While people are wasting all their energy railing against a President those truly responsible are all but ignored. The United States Congress is the true culprit when it comes to ruining the country. They operate under no term limits. Any freshman Senators or Representatives that may have won election on promises of government reform are rendered powerless if the take office and start making waves. They find themselves shut out of any committee assignments which is were they real power lies. Congressional Committees decide what legislation gets brought up for debate and actual votes. We have people who have power within the Senate and House for over 10 years. If they were in the private sector the whole lot of them would have been fired for malfeasance and judged incapable of meeting any defined goals. The current lot of legislators are not doing their jobs they are doing nothing but running investigations for the sole purpose of electoral power grabbing. If only these people put half as much energy into doing the job they were elected for as they do running for that job things would be a little better. It certainly couldn't be any worse. These same legislators are some how responsible for passing the national budget but the majority of them are probably incapable of balancing their own check books.

They have passed legislation that provides a gigantic loophole on the amount of money a politician or political party can accept. There was no public debate on the 501c legislation. None what so ever. Congress has passed laws that prevent any of it's active members from being subpoenaed or investigated and questioned in an open forum. They reserve the right to judge their own behind closed doors. If these people were the standup patriotic supporters of US democracy they would all promise to never run for re-election and acknowledge the harm each and everyone of them has perpetrated on the American people.

Re:Because fuck you, that's why.

[CohibaVancouver]

Why do so many people think they can decide what is the "best interests" of other people?

Because they're not morons.

Obviously not taking away healthcare from the working class is in their best interest.

Obviously allowing class actions against corporations (the topic of this thread) is in people's best interests.

Obviously not creating a tax cut for the wealthy which drives up the deficit and/or increases taxes for the middle class is in people's best interest.

on and on...

...so yeah, at a base level it's pretty easy to know what's in people's best interests.

Re:Because fuck you, that's why.

[hey!]

Because they are angry and fearful. It's an old, reliable formula: scare people, or take advantage of their existing insecurities, and then put a face on it: the Jew. The Auslander. The immigrant. The Mexican.

The formula works because it feels simple. There's no complicated policy or economics involved, you know its right because it feels right. But feelings *always* feel right. There's no such thing as critical feeling, only critical thinking.

Re:Because fuck you, that's why.

[whoever57]

It's also obvious that, without meaningful punishment, companies will continue to defraud and otherwise screw over their customers.

Class actions can provide that punishment. Forced arbitration allows companies to escape any punishment whatsoever for their illegal actions.

Re:Because fuck you, that's why.

[Anonymous Coward]

I love that this is getting attention. There was an article about the FCC removing restrictions on further media consolidation, and the first comment was all doom and gloom about Trump. Talk about myopia. I have watched as Clear Channel eat the radio dial throughout my lifetime, but, all of a sudden, it's a God damn emergency. As much as I'd like to be happy that people are paying attention to issues I have been tracking for 15 years, it's clearly myopic thinking that won't help this country in the long run. It's like a teacher teaching critical thinking. Sure, it's great when students get the right answer, but that doesn't mean that they are learning the actual skill they should be: critical thinking. I voted for Trump, specifically, because I had the viewpoint that it would force Congress to take their jobs more seriously. (My other reason for voting Trump was I refused to vote for the Democratic moneyed interests candidate in defiance of the popular will of the party voters. To me, that act had a much graver potential impact on the future of the USA than even 8 years of DJT.) But, almost no one thinks like this. The vast majority just picked a team like they do with a major league sport and now they're dug in. If Hillary Clinton had come out in favor of school vouchers you can bet it would have been the feminist issue du jour ("Our kids deserve choice!") People in this country have very little critical thinking skills. For like 75%+ of voters in the USA, the issues don't matter; the team does.

Re:Because fuck you, that's why.

[Xyrus]

It's because the swill they swallow encourages them to shut off their brains. They create a boogeyman, then push a message of hate. It can be Mexicans or African Americans or gays or whatever. It doesn't matter. Once they have people being afraid, they got them by the balls. The will do and defend anything, regardless of how stupid or self destructive it is.

Hence why Trump is president and no matter what he does his supporters will still back him. And they have proven that time and time again. A solid percentage of his supporters get their healthcare from Obamacare, yet they want it destroyed. A solid percentage think the rich elite should pay their share, yet cheer on blatant tax cuts for the rich. The list goes on and on.

The ironic thing is, these people don't actually want Trump. They have been so brainwashed that liberals are evil that you could put a mass murdering psychopath up against a democratic candidate and they would vote for the mass murdering psychopath. It's quite fascinating from a psychological and sociological stand point. Perhaps if future generations ever study this time period after digging up our remains from the toxic and nuclear ash, they'll gather some insight about how such a civilization could end so quickly and make it a point NOT to do that.

Re:Because fuck you, that's why.

[Anonymous Coward]

Your fault is swallowing lies about xenophobia or racism. People voted for Trump because Hillary offered nothing but the same fucking over they have had to endure for many years. They were willing to vote for anyone in hopes of any change. Instead of acknowledging that, you and many others have decided to treat the downtrodden worse, steeling their resolve against what you say, and will likely vote for Trump again or whomever asshole is next just to spite you.

Hence why Trump is president and no matter what he does his supporters will still back him. And they have proven that time and time again.

No there are hardly any Trump supporters, only desperate people that are no longer willing to accept the options you choose to give them and willingly accepted the only other option.

They have been so brainwashed that liberals are evil

When liberal policies destroys livelihoods and calls them a "basket of deplorables", that is evil from their perspective. They dislike obamacare because they are forced to pay for something they cant afford to use. Imagine not being able to afford the copay of the insurance that you are required, by law, to pay for. Imagine how heartbraking it is to have generations of you family be solidly middle class until liberal pro-globalization policies destroys entire regions to never recover. Then at the end be treated like human trash, be laughed at, and degraded by the same people that made those negative events happen.

Have some empathy. Apply compassion and you will understand why people make the choices they do.

Re: Because fuck you, that's why.

[Anonymous Coward]

No. Fuck you for doing your best to divide the working people on racial lines. You're too dumb to be a villain, so I guess that makes you a tool.

Brothers what we need now is solidarity. We're all Americans, all one people. Spend a little time out of the country and you'll see, Americans are the least racist people in the world. We must not let the running dogs of capitalism create false divisions among us.

Re:Because fuck you, that's why.

[Goetterdaemmerung]

My interests have not been represented in quite a few years. I am white, heterosexual, have medical insurance provided by my employer(s), college educated with BS and MS degrees in my chosen professional field, widowed, no kids, make too much money to claim lower bracket tax deductions and not enough money to take advantage of the higher bracket tax deductions, and practice no denomination of religious beliefs.

In fact, you are exactly the demographic that the Democratic party represents. Sure, they give some lip service to progressive ideas and identity politics, but that's because that's what people like you want to hear. But the establishment Democrats do nothing to support policies to actually help the poor and working class - they help people like you. It's why urban centers on the costs are so blue.

Uh, I'm not sure where you get your information however the Democrats haven't supported the middle class and especially the white, male middle class for years. They emphasize support for minorities and the working poor who are abundant in the urban centers on the coasts.

Re: Because fuck you, that's why.

[Anonymous Coward]

FTFY: they provide support for the non-working poor. They shit all over the working poor by destroying rural economies and punishing the working poor with sin taxes and subsidies for their funders. Cigarettes are bad, so let's put a $2/day tax on poor people. Cars are bad, so let's make it cost an extra $.30/day for them to drive to work. Solar panels are good, so let's make the poor people subsidize them with net metering; there's another fifty cents a day in power bills for poor people, because renters don't get solar panels. Cage free eggs stop cruelty, if you can afford them.

No, the Democrats don't give a fuck about the working poor, or the working class. They've sold us out, shipped our jobs to China to make the bankers a quick buck, and Hilary is worth $45 million living off our taxes.

Re:Why Only 3 Major Credit Bureaus?

[thegreatbob]

Because oligopolies are as American as apple pie?

Ridiculous Stretch

[Candyman_JAC]

Trying to tie forced arbitration as part of a contract, to lawsuits against Equifax, where no contract exists, is quite ridiculous. I doubt many of the 140M people impacted by the Equifax breach have a previously accepted contract with a mandatory arbitration clause, or any clause for that matter.

Deck chairs, titanic

[bradley13]

This is all noise. The real, fundamental problem in the US is the fact that you can apply for credit with essentially *no* verification of your actual identity.

Re:Wait just one damned minute!

[Calydor]

That domain name STILL looks like a scam site.