Law Commons^™

Reframing The (False?) Choice Between Purchaser Welfare And Total Welfare, Alan J. Meese

Alan J. Meese

This Article critiques the role that the partial equilibrium trade-off paradigm plays in the debate over the definition of “consumer welfare” that courts should employ when developing and applying antitrust doctrine. The Article contends that common reliance on the paradigm distorts the debate between those who would equate “consumer welfare” with “total welfare” and those who equate consumer welfare with “purchaser welfare.” In particular, the model excludes, by fiat, the fact that new efficiencies free up resources that flow to other markets, increasing output and thus the welfare of purchasers in those markets. Moreover, the model also assumes that both …

Fifty Years After The Consumer Credit Protection Act: The High Price Of Wage Garnishment, Faith Mullen

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Google Perceives Customer Privacy, Cyber, E-Commerce, Political And Regulatory Compliance Risks, Lawrence J. Trautman

William & Mary Business Law Review

By now, almost every business has an Internet presence. What are the major risks perceived by those engaged in the universe of Internet businesses? What potential risks, if they become reality, may cause substantial increases in operating costs or threaten the very survival of the enterprise?

This Article discusses the relevant annual report disclosures from Alphabet, Inc. (parent of Google), along with other Google documents, as a potentially powerful teaching device. Most of the descriptive language to follow is excerpted directly from Alphabet’s (Google) regulatory filings. My additions about these entities include weaving their disclosure materials into a logical presentation …

Has The Us Economy Become More Concentrated And Less Competitive: A Review Of The Data, Jonathan Baker, Steven Berry, Fiona Scott Morton, Joshua Wright, Gregory Werden

Congressional and Other Testimony

FTC Chairman Joe Simons presented opening remarks, followed by a day of discussion by a distinguished set of panelists who discussed the following topics (some of which will be discussed on the rescheduled date):the current landscape of competition and consumer protection law and policy;whether the U.S. economy has become more concentrated and less competitive;the regulation of consumer data;antitrust law and the consumer welfare standard; andthe analysis of vertical mergers.This hearing was initially scheduled for September 13-14, 2018, but the second day sessions were rescheduled to November 1 due to inclement weather.

Broken Promises: How Debt-Financed Higher Education Rewrote America’S Social Contract And Fueled A Quiet Crisis, Seth Frotman

Utah Law Review

The U.S. student loan market stands at $1.5 trillion—the second largest consumer debt market in the country. Despite the vast size of this market and the far-reaching spillover effects of student loan debt on individuals and communities, the American higher education system increasingly relies on debt financing as the predominant mechanism by which American families pay for college. Furthermore, student loans still lack a comprehensive twenty-first century consumer protection infrastructure. Researchers and policymakers are only now beginning to acknowledge the threat runaway student debt poses to the American social contract - even as millions of borrowers across the country struggle …

Time Bandits: The Seventh Circuit Gets It Wrong By Allowing Debt Purchasers To Escape Fdcpa Liability For Filing Time-Barred Proofs Of Claim In Chapter 13 Bankruptcies, Jeffrey Michalik

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Debt purchasers can use debtors’ bankruptcies to profit from stale, otherwise unenforceable debt. Although state statutes of limitations bar legal enforcement of this debt, predictable breakdowns of the bankruptcy process mean that the debtor might be forced to pay anyway. Courts have determined that this scheme does not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, allowing debt purchasers to continue this scheme without repercussion.

Picture Imperfect: Attempted Regulation Of The Art Market, Patty Gerstenblith

Patty Gerstenblith

No abstract provided.

Identity Theft: Making The Known Unknowns Known, Chris Jay Hoofnagle

Chris Jay Hoofnagle

No abstract provided.

Boilerplate’S False Dichotomy, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

The argument against enforcing boilerplate contracts (contracts that no one reads) seems clear. Indeed, if this were a court case we would say that the jury is in; the evidence against boilerplate is overwhelming. Yet the judge has yet to render judgment. Courts continue to enforce boilerplate terms, and even those scholars who have exposed boilerplate as an emperor with no clothes are reluctant to gaze upon its nakedness and condemn its use.

This reluctance originates in an assumption that pervades the boilerplate debate—namely, that courts and commentators alike view boilerplate as necessary to the modern transaction. When asked to …

Consumer Protection In The Age Of Connected Everything, Terrell Mcsweeny

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Access To Consumer Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey

Scholarly Works

This essay examines the state of access to justice in the context of consumer bankruptcy from two vantage points: (1) how people decide that their money problems are legal problems addressable by filing bankruptcy; and (2) the barriers people face in using the consumer bankruptcy system. To shed new light on how people decide to use bankruptcy to address their financial troubles, I analyze a sample of narratives accompanying consumers' complaints about financial products and services submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I also chronicle the evolution of research regarding consumer bankruptcy’s “local legal culture,” systemic racial bias, and …

The Risk Of An Anti-Consumer Cfpb, Christopher L. Peterson

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The risks of an anti-consumer CFPB go beyond just those cases currently under investigation. America has a massive financial sector that is constantly evolving and reinventing itself. This striving for innovation and efficiency is, of course, one of the American financial system’s great advantages. Nevertheless, the Sun-Tzu-worshipping, MBA-wielding financiers that use boilerplate consumer credit contracts as weapons in their endless market-share battles are paying attention to what the agency is doing—and more importantly, to what it is not doing. A chilled CFPB law enforcement program will embolden the consumer finance industry to roll out more misleading advertising, more deceptive sales …

The Magnificence Of The Disaster: Reconstructing The Sony Bmg Rootkit Incident, Deirdre K. Mulligan, Aaron K. Perzanowski

Deirdre Mulligan

No abstract provided.

Rise Of The Digital Regulator, Rory Van Loo

Faculty Scholarship

The administrative state is leveraging algorithms to influence individuals’ private decisions. Agencies have begun to write rules to shape for-profit websites such as Expedia and have launched their own online tools such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s mortgage calculator. These digital intermediaries aim to guide people toward better schools, healthier food, and more savings. But enthusiasm for this regulatory paradigm rests on two questionable assumptions. First, digital intermediaries effectively police consumer markets. Second, they require minimal government involvement. Instead, some for-profit online advisers such as travel websites have become what many mortgage brokers were before the 2008 financial crisis. …

Calling On The Cfpb For Help: Telling Stories And Consumer Protection, Pamela Foohey

Scholarly Works

Since it began operating in 2011, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has handled more than a million complaints regarding consumer financial product and services. Beginning in June 2015, the CFPB began publishing consumers’ narratives submitted with their complaints. This Article analyses a random sample of 5,000 of these narratives to assess how people engage with the complaint mechanism in light of the CFPB’s role in processing complaints. I find that people predominately use the complaint function for two distinct purposes: to express their anger and frustration about companies’ practices, or to express sadness and fear about how companies’ practices …

Determining The Deception Of Sexual Orientation Change Efforts, John M. Satira

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Individual Licensing Models And Consumer Protection, Lucie Guibault

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Copyright law is not primarily directed at consumers. Their interests are therefore only marginally accounted for, as the copyright rules exempt specific uses of works from the right holder’s control. This chapter examines the impact of digital technology on the position of consumers of licensed copyrighted content. While ownership of the physical embodiment of a work does not entail the ownership of the rights in the work, how does copyright law deal with ‘disembodied’ works? Whereas digital content is now commonly distributed on the basis of individual licensing schemes, what does it mean for consumers? Do they have a claim …

Confounded Collectors, Confused Consumers: Time To Close The Circuit Split On Whether The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Requires A Consumer To Dispute A Debt In Writing, Daniel O'Connell

Catholic University Law Review

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) provides that a debt collector must notify a consumer that it will assume a debt to be valid unless the consumer challenges the debt within thirty days. The FDCPA does not explicitly require the consumer to challenge the debt in writing. The Third Circuit requires written disputes, while the Second, Fourth, and Ninth Circuits permit oral disputes. This Comment discusses the reasoning and conclusions at play in this circuit split. The Comment argues that while both sides of the debate present meritorious arguments, permitting oral disputes for purposes of rebutting the debt collector’s …

Unfair And Deceptive Robots, Woodrow Hartzog

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Should Copyright Owners Have To Give Notice Of Their Use Of Technical Protection Measures, Pamela Samuelson, Jason Schultz

Pamela Samuelson

No abstract provided.

Text Anxiety, Melvin Aron Eisenberg

Melvin A. Eisenberg

No abstract provided.

En Torno A La Relevancia Jurídica De Una Estrategia Empresarial Consolidada Y Subyacente: La Obsolescencia Programada (About The Juridical Relevance Of An Underlying And Consolidated Business Strategy: The Planned Obsolescence), Jesús A. Soto

Jesús Alfonso Soto Pineda

El artículo presenta la obsolescencia programada, como estrategia empresarial, basada en el diseño, planificación, proyección y control de la vida útil de los productos, con el objetivo de dinamizar la demanda y estimular el consumo; impulsando a los particulares a adquirir tras la pérdida de funcionalidad de sus bienes o su caducidad. Exponiendo igualmente los casos de mayor trascendencia que han llevado tal estrategia hasta nuestros días, haciendo hincapié en el sector tecnológico y en uno de sus exponentes de más notoriedad, la empresa multinacional norteamericana Apple. Deslindando a su vez, los caracteres que le otorgan relevancia ética a la …

Reforming The Regulation Of Community, Tanya D. Marsh

Indiana Law Journal

The regulatory framework for financial institutions in the United States imposes significant costs on community banks without providing benefits to consumers or the economy that justify those costs. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act builds on decades of “one-size-fits-all” regulation of financial institutions, an ill-conceived regulatory strategy that puts community banks at a competitive disadvantage as compared with their larger, more complex competitors. The imposition of regulatory burdens on community banks without attendant benefits ultimately harms both consumers and the economy by (1) forcing community banks to consolidate or go out of business, furthering the concentration of …

Directive 2005/29/Ec On Unfair Commercial Practices And Its Application To Food-Related Consumer Protection, Luis González Vaqué

Luis González Vaqué

Directive 2005/29/EC on Unfair Commercial Practices was adopted on 11 May 2005 to help consumers benefit from the Internal Market by removing regulatory barriers, deriving from divergent national rules, which discouraged firms from selling and undermined consumers' trust in buying across the EU. It provides for a high level of consumer protection in all sectors and works as a safety net that fills the gaps, which are not regulated by other EU sector- specific rules (i.e. Foodstuffs).

A Comprehensive Economic And Legal Analysis Of Tying Arrangements, Guy Sagi

Seattle University Law Review

The law of tying arrangements as it stands does not correspond with modern economic analysis. Therefore, and because tying arrangements are so widely common, the law is expected to change and extensive academic writing is currently attempting to guide its way. In tying arrangements, monopolistic firms coerce consumers to buy additional products or services beyond what they intended to purchase. This pressure can be applied because a consumer in a monopolistic market does not have the alternative to buy the product or service from a competing firm. In the absence of such choice, the monopolistic firm can allegedly force the …

Testimony To The Committee On Financial Institutions, Kansas House Of Representatives March 13, 2014, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

This document contains the text of testimony given before the Committee on Financial Institutions, Kansas House of Representatives March 13, 2014, in a hearing to address potential changes to the regulation of payday lending in Kansas.

Debt-Buyer Lawsuits And Inaccurate Data, Peter A. Holland

Peter A. Holland

Pursuant to secret purchase and sale agreements (also known as forward flow agreements), the accounts that banks sell to debt buyers are often sold “as is,” with explicit and emphatic disclaimers that the debts may not be owed, the amounts claimed may not be accurate, and documentation may be missing. Despite their full knowledge that the accuracy and completeness of the data has been specifically disclaimed by the bank, when they sue consumers, debt buyers tell courts that the information obtained from the bank is inherently reliable and accurate. In order to avoid a fraud on the courts, the contents …

Junk Justice: A Statistical Analysis Of 4,400 Lawsuits Filed By Debt Buyers, Peter A. Holland

Peter A. Holland

Debt buyers have flooded courts nationwide with collection lawsuits against consumers. This article reports the findings from the broadest in-depth study of debt buyer litigation outcomes yet undertaken. The study demonstrates that in debt buyer cases, (1) the vast majority of consumers lose the vast majority of cases by default the vast majority of the time; (2) consumers had no lawyer in ninety-eight percent of the cases; and (3) those who filed a notice that they intended to defend themselves without an attorney fared poorly, both in court and in out of court settlements. This study challenges the notion that …

Crimes And Medical Care On Board Cruise Ships: Do The Statistics Fit The Crimes?, Leticia M. Diaz, Barry H. Dubner, Nicole Mckee

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Critical Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Consumer Complaint Redressal Agencies Under The Consumer Protection Act, 1986, Sudhir Tarote, Sukdeo Ingale

Sukdeo Ingale

In this paper, the authors have bird’s eye view of the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 dealing with jurisdictional overlapping, summary proceeding, power to grant interim relief, review powers, appeal, lack of the status of ‘Court of Record’ etc. The authors found some defects in the functioning of the existing framework of the Consumer Complaint Redressal Agencies and have suggested in which way the procedural reform shall go further for better protection of substantive rights of consumer. The scope of this paper is limited to the procedural rights of consumer and does not explore substantive rights of consumer.