Law Commons^™

A New Era In The Application Of U.S. Securities Law Abroad: Valuing The Presumption Against Extraterritoriality And Managing The Future With The Sustainable- Domestic-Integrity Standard, Alina Veneziano

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

The U.S. Supreme Court in Morrison held that Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act did not apply extraterritorially, lacking a clear indication by Congress of the intent to do so. In reaching this conclusion, it clarified that the reach of Section 10(b) is a merits question, not a question of subject matter jurisdiction and stated that the focus of the statute was upon purchases and sales of securities in the United States while articulating a bright-line transactional test to determine whether extraterritorial application was appropriate. The transactional test completely rejected the conduct/effects tests, which had been used by courts for …

Broadening Consumer Law: Competition, Protection, And Distribution, Rory Van Loo

Notre Dame Law Review

Policymakers and scholars have in distributional conversations traditionally ignored consumer laws, defined as the set of consumer protection, antitrust, and entry-barrier laws that govern consumer transactions. Consumer law is overlooked partly because tax law is cast as the most efficient way to redistribute. Another obstacle is that consumer law research speaks to microeconomic and siloed contexts—deceptive fees by Wells Fargo or a proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Even removing millions of dollars of deceptive credit card fees across the nation seems trivial compared to the trillion-dollar growth in income inequality that has sparked concern in recent decades. …

Increasing Lapses In Data Security: The Need For A Common Answer To What Constitutes Standing In A Data Breach Context, Aaron Benjamin Edelman

Journal of Law and Policy

As the number of data breaches continues to rise in the United States, so does the amount of data breach litigation. Many potential plaintiffs who suffered as victims of data breaches, however, find themselves in limbo regarding the issue of standing before a court because of a significant split on standing determinations amongst the federal circuit courts. Thus, while victims of data breaches oftentimes have their personal information fall into the hands of nefarious characters who intend to use the information to a victim’s detriment, that may not be enough to provide victims a right to sue in federal court …

A New Age Of Evolution: Protecting The Consumer’S Moral And Legal Right To Know Through The Clear And Transparent Labeling Of All Genetically Modified Foods, Halie M. Evans

Journal of Law and Health

The United States government, until recently, did not require the labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). On July 29, 2016, President Barack Obama signed into law the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS). This law directs the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to create regulations that require manufacturers to disclose certain bioengineered products on food labels. On December 20, 2018, the USDA released the final regulations for the NBFDS, which requires food manufactures, importers, and certain retailers to ensure bioengineered foods are appropriately disclosed. The final regulations include provisions that will leave the majority of GMO derived foods unlabeled. …

Time For Change: Stepping Up The Fda's Regulation Of Dietary Supplements To Promote Consumer Safety And Awareness, George Kennett

Journal of Law and Health

People are often looking for that quick fix when it comes to their health. With dietary supplements so readily available on the market, the public assume that they have been through rigorous testing. Dietary supplements are not tested as much as consumers believe. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not initiate the same type of testing and analysis for supplements as it does for food, drink and medication. Given that people are now choosing supplemental meal replacements and the like, as opposed to whole foods, regulations drastically need to be stepped up in an effort to emphasise public safety. …

Beauty Shouldn’T Cause Pain: A Makeover Proposal For The Fda’S Cosmetics Regulation, Lauren Jacobs

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

The American cosmetics industry is not required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct pre-market safety assessments of cosmetics. The FDA only reviews personal care products when people voluntarily report problems. Further, companies continue to test animals for cosmetics, despite the FDA’s recommendation that manufacturers seek more humane and accurate testing. Although the FDA does not require animal testing for product safety or premarket approval, the United States is one of the largest users of laboratory animals for product testing. There are two pending pieces of legislation, which if passed would be the first acts of cosmetic regulation …

Intellectual Property For Breakfast: Market Power And Informative Symbols In The Marketplace, P. Sean Morris

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article continues to examine an important question: are trademarks a source of market power, or, put differently, when are trademarks an antitrust problem? This fundamental question is a cause of division among antitrust and intellectual property law scholars. However, by raising the question and presenting some scenarios that can provide answers, my hope is that contemporary antitrust and intellectual property scholars can explore some of its implications. As part of my own quest to address this question, I explore the proposition that creative deception and the wealth-generating capacity of trademarks are unorthodox elements that actually contribute to allegations of …

One-Legged Contracting, Ian Ayres, Gregory Klass

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This response to Robin Bradley Kar & Margaret Jane Radin, Pseudo-Contract and Shared Meaning Analysis, 132 Harv. L. Rev. 1135 (2019), makes three broad points. It criticizes as arbitrary and essentializing Kar and Radin’s insistence of shared meaning as the core of contracting. It argues that even if shared meaning were the sine qua non of contracting, their proposal fails to achieve it because it does not assure that the terms would be cooperatively communicated. And it argues that their proposed enforcement standard would in practice severely limit freedom of contract and likely reduce consumer welfare. There is a …

Combatting The Opioid Epidemic In Texas By Holding Big Pharma Manufacturers Liable, Katherine Spiser

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Broadening Consumer Law: Competition, Protection, And Distribution, Rory Van Loo

Faculty Scholarship

Policymakers and scholars have in distributional conversations traditionally ignored consumer laws, defined as the set of consumer protection, antitrust, and entry barrier laws that govern consumer transactions. Consumer law is overlooked partly because tax law is cast as the most efficient way to redistribute. Another obstacle is that consumer law research speaks to microeconomic and siloed contexts—deceptive fees by Wells Fargo or a proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Even removing millions of dollars of deceptive credit card fees across the nation seems trivial compared to the trillion-dollar growth in income inequality that has sparked concern in recent …

State Net Neutrality, Daniel A. Lyons

Daniel Lyons

For nearly a century, state regulators played an important role in telecommunications regulation. The 1934 Communications Act gave the Federal Communications Commission authority to regulate interstate telephone service, but explicitly left intrastate calls—which comprised 98% of Depression-era telephone traffic—to state public utility commissions. By the late 2000s, however, as landline telephony faded to obscurity, scholars and policymakers alike recognized that the era of comprehensive state telecommunications regulation had largely come to an end.

Perhaps surprisingly, however, the first years of the Trump Administration have seen a resurgence in state telecommunications regulation—driven not by state institutional concerns, but by policy disagreements …

Comment Of Professor Patricia A. Mccoy On Docket No. Cfpb-2019-0039, Patricia A. Mccoy

Patricia A. McCoy

In this comment letter, Professor McCoy responds to the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Qualified Mortgages issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Inside Job: The Assault On The Structure Of The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Patricia A. Mccoy

Patricia A. McCoy

Soon after the 2016 election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, while Republicans controlled Congress, opponents of the fledgling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) opened a campaign against the Bureau. Their target was less the substance of federal consumer financial protection laws than the structure of the CFPB itself. This emphasis on structure was a response to the fact that Congress in 2010 had given special thought to the design of the CFPB to safeguard the Bureau and its mission.

In 2017, after legislation to weaken the Bureau’s structure failed in Congress and constitutional challenges to the …

It's Nothing Personal: Why Existing State Laws On Point-Of-Sale Consumer Data Collection Should Be Replaced With A Federal Standard, Kate Mirino

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Accordingly, this Note proposes a contemporary-minded federal solution to preempt and standardize the various, outmoded state approaches in this field. Part I engages in a historical overview of the development of information privacy law in the United States. Part II provides a summary and comparison of the existing state rules at play. Part III discusses the negative consequences—both to consumers and to businesses—of inconsistent regulation in this area, and explains why a federal solution is necessary. Part IV outlines the parameters of the federal regulation proposed by this Note.

The California Consumer Privacy Act: The Illusion Of Control?, Justin Trimachi

GGU Law Review Blog

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) goes into effect on January 1, 2020. On the surface, the purpose of the CCPA is to give consumers “rights” to control how businesses monetize their personal information. However, the extent of those “rights” is somewhat vague in the language of the statute.

The Internet Of Bodies, Andrea M. Matwyshyn

William & Mary Law Review

This Article introduces the ongoing progression of the Internet of Things (IoT) into the Internet of Bodies (IoB)—a network of human bodies whose integrity and functionality rely at least in part on the Internet and related technologies, such as artificial intelligence. IoB devices will evidence the same categories of legacy security flaws that have plagued IoT devices. However, unlike most IoT, IoB technologies will directly, physically harm human bodies—a set of harms courts, legislators, and regulators will deem worthy of legal redress. As such, IoB will herald the arrival of (some forms of) corporate software liability and a new legal …

Protecting Consumers As Sellers, Jim Hawkins

Indiana Law Journal

When the majority of modern contract and consumer protection laws were written in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, consumers almost always acted as buyers, and businesses almost always acted as sellers. As a result, these laws reflect a model of strong sellers and weak buyers. But paradigms are shifting. Advances in technology and constraints on consumers’ financial lives have pushed consumers into new roles. Consumers today often act as sellers—hawking gold to make ends meet, peddling durable goods on eBay, or offering services in the sharing economy to make a profit. Consumers and business models have changed, but the laws …

Net Neutrality And The European Union’S Copyright Directive For The Digital Single Market, Nathan Guzé

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

The European Union’s Copyright Directive for the Digital Single Market should cause concern for net neutrality advocates. This article casts a critical gaze at Article 17 (previously Article 13) of this new Directive. It chronicles the Directive’s life: starting as a reaction to the perceived inadequate copyright protections provided by the previous Information Society Copyright Directive through to its then-present status circa May 2019. Next, net neutrality is defined, and its benefits and detriments are weighed to ultimately determine the policy is desirable. Article 17’s call for eliminating safe-harbor provisions for content hosts and its call for content filters signal …

Intellectual Property Law And The Right To Repair, Leah Chan Grinvald, Ofer Tur-Sinai

Fordham Law Review

This Article posits that intellectual property law should accommodate consumers’ right to repair their products. In recent years, there has been a growing push towards state legislation that would provide consumers with a “right to repair” their products. Currently, twenty states have pending legislation that would require product manufacturers to make available replacement parts and repair manuals. Unfortunately, though, this legislation has stalled in many of the states. Manufacturers have been lobbying the legislatures to stop the enactment of these repair laws based on different concerns, including how these laws may impinge on their intellectual property rights. Indeed, a right …

Regulating Habit-Forming Technology, Kyle Langvardt

Fordham Law Review

Tech developers, like slot machine designers, strive to maximize the user’s “time on device.” They do so by designing habit-forming products— products that draw consciously on the same behavioral design strategies that the casino industry pioneered. The predictable result is that most tech users spend more time on device than they would like, about five hours of phone time a day, while a substantial minority develop life-changing behavioral problems similar to problem gambling. Other countries have begun to regulate habit-forming tech, and American jurisdictions may soon follow suit. Several state legislatures today are considering bills to regulate “loot boxes,” a …

Amazon And Platform Antitrust, Ben Bloodstein

Fordham Law Review

With its decision in Ohio v. American Express, the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time embraced the recently developed, yet increasingly prolific, concept of the two-sided platform. Through advances in technology, platforms, which serve as intermediaries allowing two groups to transact, are increasingly ubiquitous, and many of the biggest tech companies operate in this fashion. Amazon Marketplace, for example, provides a platform for third-party vendors to sell directly to consumers through Amazon’s web and mobile interfaces. At the same time that platforms and their scholarship have evolved, a burgeoning antitrust movement has also developed which focuses on the …

Makeup Or Fakeup?: The Need To Regulate Counterfeit Cosmetics Through Improved Chinese Intellectual Property Enforcement, Jennifer Lei

Fordham Law Review

This Note examines whether new developments in intellectual property enforcement are able to fix the notorious counterfeiting issue in China, particularly with counterfeit cosmetics. Counterfeit cosmetics are a threat to public safety in the United States and globally, especially as the cosmetics industry continues to expand. There are two opposing views on whether China’s intellectual property regime—in light of the 2017 to 2019 developments—is able to address the issue. This Note proposes that even with recent developments, current laws and enforcement methods do not reduce counterfeit production. Instead, this Note argues that the Chinese government should use educational campaigns to …

Regulating Retirement: Understanding The Impact Of New Best Interest And Fiduciary Standards On Retail Investors, Michael Lichtmacher

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reading The Product: Warnings, Disclaimers, And Literary Theory, Laura A. Heymann

Laura A. Heymann

No abstract provided.

Suing Guns Out Of Existence?, Scott R. Thomas, Mystica M. Alexander

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

In an effort to address gun violence, activists and victims’ families have filed lawsuits against the firearms industry seeking damage awards for violence committed by third party unrelated actors. Although Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) in 2005 intending to foreclose such lawsuits, since the time of the law’s passage, plaintiffs have brought claims against the firearms industry seeking refuge in an exception embedded in the statute. In a March, 2019 decision, Soto v. Bushmaster Firearms International, LLC, the Connecticut Supreme Court found that the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act fell within an exception …

Poole V. Nev. Auto Dealership Inv.’S, Llc, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 39 (Sept. 5, 2019), Petya Pucci

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that under the Nevada Deceptive Trade Practices Act (“NDTPA”) , (1) “knowingly” means that “the defendant is aware that the facts exist that constitute the act or omission”, and (2) that a fact is “material” if either (a) “a reasonable person would attach importance to its existence or nonexistence in determining a choice of action in the transaction in question,” or b) “the defendant knows or has reason to know that the consumer regards or is likely to regard the matter as important in determining a choice of action, although a reasonable person may not so regard …

State, Dep’T Of Bus. & Indus. V. Titlemax, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 44 (Sept. 26, 2019), Alexis Taitel

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

In an en banc opinion, the Nevada Supreme Court answered whether title lender TitleMax’s Grace Period Deferment Agreement (“GPPDA”), which applied to short-term, high-interest loans offered to Nevada consumers in 2014 and 2015, qualified as a true grace period under NRS 604A.210. The Court concluded that the GPPDA was not a true grace period, but was instead an impermissible extension of the 210-day loans. The Court reasoned that the GPPDA was an extension because TitleMax charged borrowers additional interest during the extended period and thus violated NRS 604A.445, a statute enacted by the Nevada Legislature in part to protect consumers …

Deceptively Simple: The Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Margaret E. Rushing

Arkansas Law Review

In the 2017 legislative session, the Arkansas General Assembly significantly changed the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (“ADTPA”). These changes now prohibit private class actions under the ADTPA and require plaintiffs to prove additional elements of reliance and actual financial loss when bringing a claim. The changes appear to limit the ability of a consumer to bring a private action under the ADPTA. With these changes, Arkansas joins a minority of jurisdictions with deceptive trade practices acts that increase a plaintiff’s burden and restrict private class actions.

Revamping The Right To Be Informed: Protecting Consumers Under New Jersey's Truth-In-Consumer Contract, Warranty, And Notice Act*, Jessica Guarino

Arkansas Law Review

Prior to the 1960s, “courts were notorious for their insensitivity to consumer interests, while legislatures did little in the way of offering the consumer comprehensive protection against business fraud.”1 However, the tide of legislation began to turn in the 1960s as a movement for greater consumer protections finally reached the ears of an individual with a powerful voice: President John F. Kennedy.