The Consumer Federation of America released the following statement in response to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court opinion in the Chamber of Commerce’s lawsuit attacking the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s credit card late fees rule. The April 5 order attempts to undo the Northern District of Texas’s decision to send the case to the District of Columbia as a more appropriate venue, and was entered after the D.C. District Court docketed the case.
“This brazen opinion shows that the Fifth Circuit is playing a complicit role in the Chamber of Commerce’s forum shopping,” said Adam Rust, Director of Financial Services for the Consumer Federation of America. “Once Judge Pittman transferred the case to the District of Columbia, the question of venue should have been settled. But the Fifth Circuit continues to grasp for opportunities to undermine the CFPB, even if it means facilitating blatant forum shopping. Their judicial activism puts financially-vulnerable American households at risk.”