Law Commons^™

Not-So-Smartphone Disclosures, Jeff Sovern, Nahal Heydari

Arkansas Law Review

The consumer credit market, and particularly the credit card market, lacks perfect competition. Though usury laws and regulation of charges are germane to our findings, this Article focuses largely on disclosure. Specifically, we examine whether consumers understand the disclosures mandated for credit cards in the medium in which many consumers now engage in financial transactions. This Article proceeds as follows: Part I presents some basics on consumer protections for credit cards. Part II reviews the literature concerning disclosures on smartphones. Part III discusses our methodology. Part IV reports our findings. Part V suggests some normative implications.

Stay Schemin’: Tax Court’S Recent Ruling On Credit Card Rewards And The Impact This Ruling Has On Future Rewards Programs, Hunter Davis

Georgia Law Review

Beyond the utility of actual “credit,” the most important perk cardholders seek to capitalize on are the rewards that each cardholder’s particular credit card offers. Cardholders look for the most bang for their buck in terms of rewards and points. Ranging from frequent flyer miles to cash back to everything in between, rewards programs have expanded and diversified rapidly over the past several decades, and consumers cannot get enough. So much so that the question of whether, and when, consumer loyalty rewards should be taxable has arisen and persists today. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Tax Court have …

Credit Cards

UAEU Law Journal

Credit cards are widely usedall over the world. Theyalmost have replaced currencies in transactions, payments, and in the fulfillmentall types of financialcommitments.

Credit card is an authorization from a bank to the holder of the card, which permits the holder pay for transactions, withdrawing cash and obtaining services.

Various types of credit cards are issued by banks (including Islamic banks) to their customers:

-Regular cards whichallow the holders to pay directly for transactions from his/ her account it is a payment method.

-Cards which do not require the holder to have credit or cash in the account. Interests are charged …

The (Unfilled) Fintech Potential, Aluma Zernik

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

Part I explores the idea that technology has the utopian potential to significantly improve the way individuals make financial decisions. Part II discusses some existing market failures, while presenting the potential of technological innovation in resolving such failures. Part III presents the realized potential of such innovative products, analyzing the design of credit card comparison websites, financial management tools, and mobile wallets. I will demonstrate the significant benefits of such products, and yet the limited realization of the potential advantages of such services. Part IV presents several explanations for why such potential is not being fully realized. These explanations may …

Cancelled Credit Cards: Substantial Risk Of Future Injury As A Basis For Standing In Data Breach Cases, Jennifer Wilt

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Opening Schumer’S Box: The Empirical Foundations Of Modern Consumer Finance Disclosure Law, Hosea H. Harvey

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article explores the fundamental failure of Congress’ twenty-five-year quest to utilize disclosure as the primary tool to both regulate credit card issuers and educate consumers. From inception until present, reforms to this disclosure regime, even when premised on judgment and decision-making behavioralism, were nomothetic in orientation and ignored clear differences in population behavior and the heterogeniety of consumers. Current law prohibits credit card issuers from acquiring consumer socio-demographic data and prevents issuers and regulators from using market and policy experimentation to enhance disclosure’s efficacy. To explain why this regime was structured this way and why it must change, this …

From The Schoolhouse To The Poorhouse: The Credit Card Act's Failure To Adequately Protect Young Consumers, Eboni S. Nelson

Villanova Law Review

The article discusses the Credit Card Act of 2009 specifically its provisions aiming to protect college-aged consumers. The author cites the students' high debt figures and discusses the negative impact on their academic, personal and future professional lives. He identifies loopholes that have enabled circumventions and deliberates on proposals which include increases in age and ability-to-pay requirements, limits to increasing credit limits and imposition of usury or interest rate caps.

Unauthorized Payment Transactions And Who Should Bear The Losses, Francis J. Facciolo

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article is concerned with how losses should be allocated between holders of accounts that are implicated in payment systems and the financial institutions that participate in the payment systems by acting as intermediaries between ac- count holders. The rules involving payment systems show a wide range of divergent approaches. In the period before a transaction is executed, some payment systems take the possible negligence of an account holder into account in allocating losses for unauthorized payment transactions. The checking system is the classic case. In contrast, the Truth-in-Lending Act and the Electronic Fund Transfer Act both ignore the negligence …

Table Of Contents - Issue 2, Chicago-Kent Law Review

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Debt Dilemma, Katherine Porter

Michigan Law Review

Part I describes the nature of credit card spending and explores the usefulness of Mann's comparative approach to studying credit cards. Part II evaluates Mann's findings on the overall relationships between individual credit card transactions and aggregate levels of spending, borrowing, and bankruptcy. It also briefly analyzes the relationship between his findings and policy recommendations. Part III explores data on families who refrain from credit card use and struggle with serious financial distress. Part IV revisits Mann's policy recommendations in light of this new data. I conclude that implementing credit card reform would offer families only partial, albeit valuable, protection …

To Disclose Or Not To Disclose: Duty Of Candor Obligations Of The United States And Foreign Patent Offices, Gina M. Bicknell

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Many patent offices around the world have rigorous prior art disclosure requirements. U.S. patent applicants not only must meet each individual country's criteria for disclosure, but also must contend with allegations of inequitable conduct from patent infringers which may render their patents unenforceable. This article argues that the new prior art disclosure rules promulgated by the USPTO unfairly shift the burden of examining patent applications onto patent applicants, and create a situation ripe for allegations of inequitable conduct. This article also examines how other countries handle disclosure obligations, and recommends several alternative systems that would meet the USPTO's objectives of …

Corporate Social Responsibility: The Role Of Law And Markets And The Case Of Developing Countries, Antonio Vives

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In order for the corporation to engage in responsible practices, many obstacles must be overcome. One such obstacle is the belief of many managers that the corporation would be violating its fiduciary responsibility if it engaged in activities that go beyond what is required by the law. Another obstacle is that many of those practices have a real cost but are perceived not to have a corresponding tangible benefit. The article discusses and dismisses these perceived obstacles and argues that it is both through law and the workings of the market that responsible behavior can enhance society's welfare. It is …

Order Without (Enforceable) Law: Why Countries Enter Into Non-Enforceable Competition Policy Chapters In Free Trade Agreements, D. Daniel Sokol

Chicago-Kent Law Review

There has been an explosion in the past ten to fifteen years of bilateral and regional free trade agreements in Latin America (together, preferential free trade agreements or PTAs). The purpose of PTAs is to increase trade, regulatory, and investment liberalization. As trade liberalization requires more than just a reduction of tariffs, PTAs include "chapters" in a number of areas of domestic regulation. These chapters that address domestic regulation create binding commitments to liberalize domestic regulation that may impact foreign trade. Among chapters that address domestic regulation, many of the Latin American PTAs include a chapter on antitrust or competition …

What Is The Point Of International Criminal Justice?, Mirjan Damaška

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The first part of the article discusses the goals international criminal courts have set for themselves. The author believes that these goals are too numerous, that they are often in conflict, and that the courts are not well suited for the achievement of some of them. This situation generates disparity between the courts' aspiration and achievement, a degree of disorientation, and difficulty in assessing the courts' performance. Disillusionment stemming from unfulfilled expectations, and inconsistencies springing from disorientation, are harmful to any system of justice, and especially to international criminal courts whose legitimacy is still fragile.

In the second part of …

"Contracting" For Credit, Ronald J. Mann

Michigan Law Review

On a recent day, I used my credit cards in connection with a number of minor transactions. I made eight purchases, and I paid two credit card bills. I also discarded (without opening) three solicitations for new cards, balance transfer programs, or other similar offers to extend credit via a credit card. Statistics suggest that I am not atypical. U.S. consumers last year used credit cards in about 100 purchasing transactions per capita, with an average value of about $70. At the end of the year, Americans owed nearly $500 billion dollars, in the range of $1,800 for every man, …

The Return Of Bargain: An Economic Theory Of How Standard-Form Contracts Enable Cooperative Negotiation Between Businesses And Consumers, Jason Scott Johnston

Michigan Law Review

Among attorneys, judges, and legal academics, there is virtual consensus that the widespread use by business firms of standard-form contracts in their dealings with consumers has completely eliminated bargaining in consumer contracts. I believe that this perception is false, that rather than precluding bargaining and negotiation, standard-form contracts in fact facilitate bargaining and are a crucial instrument in the establishment and maintenance of cooperative relationships between firms and their customers. On this view, which I elaborate below, firms use clear and unconditional standard form contract terms not because they will insist upon those terms, but because they have given their …

Improvident Extension Of Credit As An Extension Of Unconscionability: Discover Bank V. Owens And A Debtor's Rights Against Credit Card Companies , Terri Rebecca Daniel

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note will examine improvident extension of credit as an extension of unconscionability in consumer credit card lending. Part II of this Note will discuss the history and foundation of unconscionability. Part III will discuss the history and foundation of improvident extension of credit, as well as the many failed attempts to create a solution to the problem of improvident extension of credit in the United States. Part IV of this Note will analyze the current role of improvident lending in consumer credit and why no solution was reached in the 1970s. Part V will examine the increased need for …

Credit Cards And Debit Cards In The United States And Japan, Ronald J. Mann

Vanderbilt Law Review

The widespread use of cards is one of the most salient features of consumer retail payment systems in the United States. American consumers use those cards to pay for about one-fourth of their retail purchases each year.' And this is not a static phenomenon; among other things, the use of debit cards, though still relatively small, is rising rapidly. That pattern of use is not, however, typical of other countries. Even in some highly industrialized nations, consumers use cards to pay for purchases much less frequently. Statistics from the Bank for International Settlements, for example, suggest about sixty card-based payment …

Credit Cards In The United States And Japan, Ronald J. Mann

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

The following essay is excerpted from a paper prepared during fall 2000 during the author's stay in Tokyo as a visiting scholar at the Institutefor Monetary and Economic Studies at the Bank of Japan.

One of the most important aspects of consumer payment systems in the United States is the widespread use of credit cards. American consumers use credit cards to pay for about one-fifth of their purchases each year. That pattern of use is not universal.

Dischargeability Of Consumer Credit Card Debt After Anastas V. American Savings Bank (In Re Anastas), Samuel B. Cothran Jr.

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Are Credit-Card Late Fees "Interest"? Delineating The Preemptive Reach Of Section 85 Of The National Bank Act Of 1864 And Section 521 Of The Depositary Institutions Deregulation And Monetary Control Act Of 1980, Kevin G. Toh

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that neither section 85 of the NBA nor section 521 of the DIDA preempts state consumer-credit-protection laws regulating late fees on credit-card transactions. Part I discusses the three approaches that the Supreme Court has devised and used over the years to determine when a federal law preempts state law: express preemption, implied preemption, and conflict preemption. Part II applies express preemption analysis and asserts that the ordinary meaning of DIDA section 521's express preemption language does not evince Congress's intent to preempt state prohibitions of late fees. Part III applies implied preemption analysis and argues that neither …

Banking And Finance Credit Cards: Provide For Deregulation, J. Cronin

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act deregulates banking laws governing bank credit cards issued in Georgia. Deregulation is accomplished by eliminating the eighteen percent ceiling on interest rates, the twelve dollar annual fee limit, and other rate and fee limitations on credit cards issued in Georgia. The Act also permits out-of-state financial institutions to establish limited purpose credit card banks in Georgia. March 19, 1987

Squaring M-Naghten With Precedent--An Historical Note, Harvey Wingo

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unauthorized Use Of Credit Cards And Some Related Questions: What Problems Remain?, R. David Lester

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Consumer Protection In The Credit Card Industry: Federal Legislative Controls, John C. Weistart

Michigan Law Review

Credit cards have been used as a means of facilitating delayed-payment purchases since early in this century. The first credit card systems were operated by retailers and service organizations in connection with the merchandising of their products. While such programs were used in local markets by department stores, oil companies were the first issuers to recognize the potential of credit card plans in larger geographical areas. In the early 1950's a new phase in credit card development evolved with the emergence of firms engaging solely in the extension of credit. These firms-Diners' Club, American Express, and Hilton Credit Corporation with …

Bank Charge Cards: New Cash Or New Credit, Roland E. Brandel, Carl A. Leonard

Michigan Law Review

It is the premise of this Article that the bank charge card systems constitute a new, highly useful, and efficient payment and credit mechanism; that any decision-making body that promulgates a rule on the issue of the assertability of consumer defenses must carefully evaluate the true functions of bank charge cards, particularly their role as part of a sophisticated payment mechanism, and weigh the relative interests of the consuming public, merchants, and members of the banking industry to derive the best solution for society; that courts are ill-equipped to perform this function; and, that, given the national and international usage …

Private Legislation And The Duty To Read--Business Run By Ibm Machine, The Law Of Contracts And Credit Cards, Stewart Macaulay

Vanderbilt Law Review

"It will not do for a man to enter into a contract, and, when called upon to abide by its conditions, say that he did not read it when he signed it, or did not know what it contained."' This rallying cry often is sounded in contracts and restitution opinions. Sometimes it makes such good sense that it is axiomatic. Yet in common with all grand slogans, there are situations where it just doesn't fit...

More difficult are the cases where the words are there in a form more easily read and understood but where the probabilities are very great …