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January 13, 2025

For immediate release

CFPB proposes rule to protect Americans’ free speech, legal rights in consumer financial contracts

WASHINGTON, DC – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today announced a proposed rule to ban terms in boilerplate contracts for consumer financial services and products that seek to remove or “waive” consumers’ legal protections and their fundamental right to freedom of expression.

The proposed rule would prohibit covered financial institutions from including in their contracts any provisions that waive federal and state consumer legal rights and protections, and their remedies, unless the statute says those rights are waivable. The proposal would also prohibit contract terms that limit their customers’ free expression, or that give financial institutions the right to unilaterally amend a material term in the contract.

“The CFPB rightfully recognizes that the “take-it-or-leave-it” fine-print that accompanies consumer financial services often goes well beyond the key terms of a deal, such as the product price or interest rate, and includes unfair terms that shield corporations from accountability and diminish consumers’ freedom to benefit from the legal safeguards in the free market,” said Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.

The proposed rule does not include contract provisions that dictate procedures for disputes, such as restrictive forced arbitration clauses or venue provisions.

“Corporate lawyers for banks and lenders not only have all the power to write unfair provisions that waive consumers’ substantive legal rights, they also have the gall to include provisions that give them more authority to change existing terms and conditions at a moment’s notice,” said Christine Hines, NACA’s senior policy director. “This conduct is surely an unfair and deceptive practice that we’re pleased the CFPB is addressing.”

The bureau is accepting comments on its proposed rule until April 1, 2025.

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