From The Checkout :

We seem to be buying more gift cards despite the hassles that have emerged, such as expiration dates, so-called "dormancy fees" for not using the card, and not being able to use the remaining balance to pay for a portion of a purchase.

In fact, you don't have to wait for the holidays anymore. The cards are in our face year round now by the checkout line at the drugstore and the supermarket.

Lately, gift card issuers have been more responsive to consumer complaints, especially after federal regulators such as the Federal Trade Commission started to crack down on them for possibly misleading consumers.

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 From Bob Sullivan at The Red Tape Chronicles :

The Florida state attorney general's office has opened an investigation into potentially misleading advertising by FreeCreditReport.com.

The Web site, owned by credit bureau Experian Group Ltd, offers consumers a chance to obtain their credit reports and credit score by signing up for a paid subscription service.

In response to a public record inquiry by MSNBC.com, the office of Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist issued a statement indicating it had opened an investigation to determine whether Experian has violated Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

The investigation will cover several entities owned by Experian, including Consumerinfo.com, Inc., Experian Consumer Direct; Qspace, Inc.; Iplace, Inc.; and the Web sites Consumerinfo.com; Creditexpert.com; and Creditmatters.com.

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From Brian Wolfman at CL&P Blog:

Judge Eldon Fallon of the U.S. District Court in New Orleans, who is presiding over the Multidistrict Litigation of thousands of Vioxx injury cases, has denied the plaintiffs' request for nationwide class certification.  The plaintiffs argued for nationwide certification on the ground that the substantive law of New Jersey, where the defendant is located, should be applied to all plaintiffs' claims no matter where the plaintiffs lived or ingested Vioxx.

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Found this reference over at FinanceProfessor.com ;

From CNN: Study says index fund investors pay more with broker - Nov. 30, 2006: "Investors who rely on a broker to recommend an index mutual fund could be paying a whole lot more that they have to, according to a study released Thursday.

The study, produced by the Zero Alpha Group, a network of financial advisory firms, and Fund Democracy, an advocacy group for mutual fund shareholders, contends that investors that use a broker are typically sold index funds with higher operating expenses, without necessarily offering a performance premium….

"Brokers are supposed to work for their clients, but when recommending a generic product such as an index fund, they refer their clients to more expensive funds and then collect sales charges to boot," said Mercer Bullard, president of Fund Democracy and a professor at the University of Mississippi School of Law."