| Volume 144 Number 43 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
When you shop online, sellers are supposed to ship your order within the time stated in their ads, or within 30 days if the ads don’t give a time. If a seller can’t ship within the promised time, it has to give you a revised shipping date, with the chance to either cancel your order for a full refund or accept the new shipping date.
So before you shop online, especially from an unfamiliar retailer, remember these three things: Click here for more.
Grocery shoppers should prepare for a spike in prices
If grocery shoppers think they had it bad during the pandemic while trying to find things like toilet paper and chicken, here come the shortages again.
According to a new report from FoodMarket, the situation is now completely reversed. Supermarkets across the U.S. are supposedly stocking up on staples to keep prices down and protect their profit margins in anticipation of what analysts believe might be the highest prices in years.
Some supermarkets are girding up simply to keep their shelves stocked because of increased consumer demand. Grocery sales in the U.S. for the week ending June 19 rose by about 15% from 2019 and jumped 0.5% from 2020, according to research by Jefferies and NielsenIQ. Associated Wholesale Grocers -- the country’s largest grocery wholesaler -- recently purchased 15% to 20% more inventory, a lot of it packaged foods that have a longer shelf life. Click here for more.
Your Money
Families are scheduled to receive their first iteration of the 2021 advance child tax credit payment starting on July 15, but not everyone who receives the payment will actually qualify for it. Those who don't qualify and fail to opt out will ultimately have to repay the monthly credit of up to $300 come tax season next year. The new child tax credit, created as part of the American Rescue Plan, expands on the existing credit of $2,000 to provide families a total of up to $3,000 for each child ages 6 to 17 and to $3,600 for each child under age 6. Instead of receiving the credit upon filing taxes, families will receive half of the credit in the form of advance monthly payments. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Supreme Court holds FCRA class action requires class members suffer “injury in fact.” In a 5-4 decision with significant implications for class actions, the Supreme Court has rejected the idea that violation of a statute can ever be enough grounds for a lawsuit unless it comes with a more concrete “injury in fact” to potential plaintiffs. Justice Thomas joined the three liberals in dissent. The majority said most of the 8,000 people in the class action case lacked the legal right to sue. Of those class members who were wrongly flagged by the credit reporting agency as potential matches to individuals on a terrorist watch-list, only about a quarter had their reports sent to third parties. The bulk of the class members suffered no concrete harm because the reputational risk of the false alerts never materialized, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the court. “A letter that is not sent does not harm anyone, no matter how insulting the letter is,” Kavanaugh wrote. “So too here.” TRANSUNION LLC v. RAMIREZ. ___ U.S. ___ (2021) Click here for more.