Ending months of speculation and insider reading of tea leaves, on July 10, 2017, the CFPB issued a final rule regarding the use of arbitration agreements in specified consumer financial contracts (Final Rule). The Final Rule was published in the Federal Register on July 19, 2017. As was substantively expected, the Final Rule: 1) bars class action waivers; and 2) imposes reporting requirements for individual arbitrations conducted pursuant to pre-dispute arbitration agreements. The Final Rule is accompanied by more than 200 pages of Supplementary Information in which the CFPB largely repeats the findings of its earlier Report to Congress and the Supplementary Information that accompanied its Proposed Rule and concludes that class action litigation and CFPB monitoring of individual arbitrations are both “in the public interest” and “for the protection of consumers.”
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