Opinion ID: 455766
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Breadth of Remedy

Text: 135 Petitioners claim that the challenged provisions of the Credit Practices Rule sweep too broadly and that the Commission could have chosen alternate means more narrowly tailored to preventing the specific abuses identified. 39 Our review of the Commission's chosen remedy is quite limited. 136 The Commission is the expert body to determine what remedy is necessary to eliminate the unfair or deceptive trade practices which have been disclosed. It has wide latitude for judgment and the courts will not interfere except where the remedy selected has no reasonable relation to the unlawful practices found to exist. 137 Jacob Siegel Co. v. FTC, 327 U.S. 608, 612-13, 66 S.Ct. 758, 760-761, 90 L.Ed. 888 (1946). We find no abuse of discretion and no cause to interfere in the present case. The Commission reasonably concluded that the most effective way to eliminate the unfair practices of taking HHG security interests and wage assignments was to proscribe their use. 138 The Commission considered narrower, alternative remedies but determined that such alternatives failed to address the full range of problems found inherent in the use of HHG security interests and wage assignments. For example, the Commission rejected a suggested alternative provision requiring only that creditors disclose in plain English the meaning of the contractual remedies. The Commission reasoned: 139 [D]isclosure alternatives would deal only partially with limited seller incentives to promote alternative remedies ... and would not address at all consumers' limited incentives to search for information about remedies. 140 49 Fed.Reg. at 7747. See id. at 7787-89 (discussing empirical evidence on the costs and benefits of the disclosure alternative). 141 Petitioner AFSA apparently seeks to bolster its overbreadth argument (and its cost-benefit argument) by citing to the Presiding Officer's observation that the prohibition of HHG security interests may have far-reaching effects. The Presiding Officer's observation, however, was with respect to the household goods provision as it was then drafted. The provision at that time did not contain the narrow definition of household goods that it now does. Thus the Presiding Officer found that the rule would prohibit the granting of security interests in such broad categories of property as jewelry, expensive luxury items, and, depending upon the purpose of the loan, grants of security interests in real property and personal property not within the commonly accepted definition of household goods. P.O. Report, J.A. at 644. The Commission's inclusion of a precise, narrowly tailored definition of household goods in 16 C.F.R. Sec. 444.1(i) addressed the concerns identified by the Presiding Officer. 40 See 49 Fed.Reg. at 7767-68. 142 In sum, following a careful review of the Commission's analysis of the record evidence, we find petitioners' challenges unpersuasive. The Commission's decision to proscribe the use of HHG security interests and wage assignments is supported by substantial evidence in the record and the Commission has neither acted arbitrarily or capriciously nor abused its discretion.