{"id":5836,"date":"2015-05-21T13:17:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T17:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-joins-broad-coalition-of-democratic-lawmakers-in-fight-to-outlaw-unfair-consumer-contracts\/"},"modified":"2023-07-24T11:10:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T15:10:00","slug":"merkley-joins-broad-coalition-of-democratic-lawmakers-in-fight-to-outlaw-unfair-consumer-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-joins-broad-coalition-of-democratic-lawmakers-in-fight-to-outlaw-unfair-consumer-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"Merkley se une a una amplia coalici\u00f3n de legisladores dem\u00f3cratas en la lucha para prohibir los contratos injustos con los consumidores"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">WASHINGTON, D.C. &mdash;Today, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), along with Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), led a broad coalition of more than 50 members of Congress in the fight to protect the rights of consumers in Minnesota and across the country who are being hurt by forced arbitration contracts in the financial services industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\n<p class=\"p1\">In a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)&mdash;the top consumer agency in the country&mdash;the lawmakers called on the CFPB to swiftly issue new rules that will eliminate the use of forced arbitration clauses in consumer financial service contracts&mdash;things like credit cards, checking accounts, payday loans, private student loans, and cell phone contracts. Forced arbitration clauses often prevent everyday consumers from taking companies to court for legal relief, and instead put victims of wrongdoing at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">&ldquo;These clauses force individuals into private binding arbitration as a condition of buying a product or service, and are designed to stack the deck against consumers and ensure that the final outcome of forced arbitration is unreviewable by courts,&rdquo; wrote the lawmakers. &ldquo;Forced arbitration clauses&mdash;often buried deep within the fine print of financial products and service contracts&mdash;harm American consumers by depriving them of their day in court even when companies have violated the law.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p2\">\n<p class=\"p1\">In March, the <a href=\"http:\/\/files.consumerfinance.gov\/f\/201503_cfpb_factsheet_arbitration-study.pdf\"><span class=\"s1\">CFPB released a study<\/span><\/a> showing that forced arbitration agreements have prevented consumers from finding relief when they are wronged. Since then, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.franken.senate.gov\/?p=press_release&amp;id=3063\"><span class=\"s1\">Sen. Franken and his colleagues have been banging the drum for new rules<\/span><\/a> to outlaw these unfair consumer contracts. More than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.consumeradvocates.org\/sites\/default\/files\/Ltr%20to%20CFPB%20arbitration%20FINAL%203-24-2015%20updated%205-18-15.pdf\"><span class=\"s1\">100 groups<\/span><\/a> have also called on the CFPB to issue new rules.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\n<p class=\"p1\">Sen. Franken was joined on his letter by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), .Tom Udall (D-N. Mex.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N. Dak.), and Ed Markey (D-Mass.). In the House of Representatives, 41 members of Congress signed the letter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\n<p class=\"p1\">As a strong advocate for consumers and workers in cases of forced arbitration, Sen. Franken has long been fighting to ban these type of contracts. He recently reintroduced his comprehensive legislation with Rep. Johnson&mdash;called the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.franken.senate.gov\/?p=press_release&amp;id=3115\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Arbitration Fairness Act<\/i><\/span><\/a>&mdash;to restore the rights of consumers, workers, and small businesses<i> <\/i>to seek justice through the courts. Sen. Franken has also previously introduced legislation to ban mandatory arbitration clauses in<span class=\"s2\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.franken.senate.gov\/?p=hot_topic&amp;id=1770\"><span class=\"s1\">cell phone and mobile data service contracts<\/span><\/a> <\/span>and in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.franken.senate.gov\/?p=hot_topic&amp;id=2206\"><span class=\"s1\">college enrollment contracts<\/span><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\n<p class=\"p1\">You can read a copy of the lawmakers&rsquo; letter to the CFPB <a href=\"http:\/\/www.franken.senate.gov\/files\/documents\/150521CFPBarbitrationLetter.pdf\"><span class=\"s1\">aqu\u00ed<\/span><\/a> o por debajo.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. &mdash;Today, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), along with Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), led a broad coalition of more than 50 members of Congress in the fight to protect the rights of consumers in Minnesota and across the country who are being hurt by forced arbitration contracts in the financial services industry. In a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[47],"class_list":["post-5836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-protecting-consumers-taxpayers-and-the-economy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Merkley Joins Broad Coalition of Democratic Lawmakers in Fight to Outlaw Unfair Consumer Contracts - Merkley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-joins-broad-coalition-of-democratic-lawmakers-in-fight-to-outlaw-unfair-consumer-contracts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Merkley Joins Broad Coalition of Democratic Lawmakers in Fight to Outlaw Unfair Consumer Contracts - Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WASHINGTON, D.C. &mdash;Today, U.S. Sen. 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