Law Commons^™

Taking It With You: Platform Barriers To Entry And The Limits Of Data Portability, Gabriel Nicholas

Michigan Technology Law Review

Policymakers are faced with a vexing problem: how to increase competition in a tech sector dominated by a few giants. One answer proposed and adopted by regulators in the United States and abroad is to require large platforms to allow consumers to move their data from one platform to another, an approach known as data portability. Facebook, Google, Apple, and other major tech companies have enthusiastically supported data portability through their own technical and political initiatives. Today, data portability has taken hold as one of the go-to solutions to address the tech industry’s competition concerns.

This Article argues that despite …

The Rental Crisis Will Not Be Televised: The Case For Protecting Tenants Under Consumer Protection Regimes, Eric Sirota

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Foreclosure Crisis of the 2000s has likely hurt renters more than homeowners. Incongruously, however, consumer enforcement agencies have been far more zealous in protecting mortgagors than tenants. This Article explores the under-protection of tenants as a class of consumers, particularly in a “commoditized” rental market, and examines how consumer enforcement agencies can more zealously incorporate tenant-protection into their mandates.

Much of the prior literature on the legal protections afforded tenants was published in the wake of the consumer rights revolution of the 1970s. This Article is the first to carefully reexamine, in the context of the modern rental market, …

Electronic Distribution Of Goods And Services: The Impact Of The Internet And Competition Law On Distribution Networks Part I, Shareef Mohammad Ghannam

UAEU Law Journal

In the past, producers resorted to the method of selling directly to consumers. At that time, the producer was close to the market and was aware of the consumers' needs and requirements. Thereupon, the producers performed the role of both producers and distributors; however, due to the growth of consumers' needs on the one hand, and the progress in production techniques, and the development of transport means and communications on the other hand, producers looked for new, domestic and external markets for their goods and services. This lead to the producers' need of specialists, called distributors, who were given the …

Effect Of The Consumer's Choice To Revoke The Contract On Determining The Moment At Which The Contract Is Concluded, Yousef Mohammed Shandi

UAEU Law Journal

The choice to revoke the conclusion of a contract is one of the most important guarantees of a complete consent in contracts. It allows consumers a chance to contemplate and consider carefully the contract before they announce their final acceptance thereof. Despite the paramount significance of this choice in relation to the consumer, it raises a complex legal problem regarding the determination of the moment of concluding the consumer contract, which is associated with the choice to revocation. A legal school deems that such a choice takes effect immediately following the exchange of consent even before the period of revocation …

The Efficacy Of The Law Protecting The Jordanian Consumer An Analytical Study Of The Law And Its Means Of Enforcement, Firas Kasassbeh, Moayyad Mohamed Al Qudat

UAEU Law Journal

The Jordanian government has shown some hesitation in issuing an Act for the protecting of consumers against the unfair practices that might be committed by suppliers. Yet, it has, under the pressure of many private organizations and academics, drafted a proposed Bill to this end, which needs many legislative steps before becoming binding Act.

This study provides an analytical and critical account of the effectiveness of this Bill through exploring two of its main areas. The first area involves the scope of the protection provided by the Bill (the proposed Act), while the second, and covers the techniques adopted for …

Exchange Of Credit Information Contract: Concept And Legal Nature: Comparative Study, Zaala Said Yahya

UAEU Law Journal

During the recent financial crisis, credit information companies arise as a critical mechanism to resolve issues especially as it deals with collecting and analyzing credit information about the consumers, who in turn, request the credit from the providers such as banks and financial institutions. These companies, whereupon its part, conclude an agreement for exchange credit information with credit providers themselves, as a prelude to granting the credit to consumer or not. Accordingly, the importance of exchange credit information contract reflects in terms of being characterized by several features that distinguish it from other kinds of contracts.

By comparing several laws …

The Guarantees Of Consumer Free Consent In Contracts Concluded Remotely: A Comparative Study, Dr.Adnan Sarhan

UAEU Law Journal

resulted from his ignorance weakness arising because of the complication of goods and services that makes their use and risks are not to be realized easily by consumers, but also extends in the recent times to include misleading advertising techniques, the brilliant development in marketing in addition to the coercive nature of recent tools that are used in bargain and contracting. One of these tools is the use of distance selling contacts in addition to the common use of electronic contracts, since a consumer is surprised by a person negotiate and contract by telephone or internet and he does not …

If You Can’T Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em (Virtually): Institutionally Managing Law Students As Consumers In A Covid World, Debra M. Vollweiler

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trademarks In Conversation: Assessing Genericism After Booking.Com, Laura A. Heymann

Faculty Publications

It is a fundamental principle of U.S. trademark law that to serve as a trademark, a word or phrase must “indicate the source” of the goods or services with which it is associated and, conversely, that a term that is understood to be the common name of a good or service is “generic” and cannot be protected as a trademark. Yet it still seems difficult to determine exactly what each concept means, particularly when the actual “source” of any goods or services might be opaque to consumers.

In part, this difficulty comes from the fact that status as a trademark …

Smart Cars, Telematics And Repair, Leah Chan Grinvald, Ofer Tur-Sinai

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Recent years have seen a surge in the use of automotive telematics. Telematics is the integration of telecommunications and informatics technologies. Using telematics in cars enables transmission of data communications between the car and other systems or devices. This opens up a wide range of possibilities, including the prospect of conducting remote diagnostics based on real-time access to the vehicle. Yet, as with any new technology, alongside its potential benefits, the use of automotive telematics could also have potential downsides. This Article explores the significant negative impact that the growing reliance on telematics systems could have on competition in the …

Consumer Perceptions Of The Right To Repair, Aaron Perzanowski

Indiana Law Journal

Part I of this Article details the strategies upon which device makers rely to frustrate repair. Part II considers legislative interventions intended to push back on existing barriers to repair, with a particular focus on the set of bills introduced in state legislatures across the United States. Part III describes the results of a survey of more than 800 U.S. consumers, focusing on their expectations of and experiences with the repair of electronic devices. The legal and policy implications of those results are discussed in Part IV.

No Standing And No Recourse: The Threat To Employee Data Under Current U.S. Cybersecurity Regulation, Georgia D. Reid

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Narratives Of Quality In European Food Governance And Beyond, Lorenzo Bairati

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fairness, Copyright, And Video Games: Hate The Game, Not The Player, Shani Shisha

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Creative communities often rely on social norms to regulate the production of creative content. Yet while an emerging body of literature has focused on isolated accounts of social norms operating in discrete, small-scale creative industries, no research to date has explored the social norms that pervade the world’s largest content microcosm—the sprawling video game community.

Now a veritable global phenomenon, the video game industry has recently grown to eclipse the music and motion picture industries. But despite its meteoric rise, the video game industry has provoked little attention from copyright scholars. This Article is the first to explore the shifting …

Six Scandals: Why We Need Consumer Protection Laws Instead Of Just Markets, Jeff Sovern

Faculty Publications

Markets are powerful mechanisms for serving consumers. Some critics of regulation have suggested that markets also provide consumer protection. For example, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman said “Consumers don’t have to be hemmed in by rules and regulations. They’re protected by the market itself.” This Article’s first goal is to test the claim that the market provides consumer protection by examining several recent incidents in which companies mistreated consumers and then explores whether consumers stopped patronizing the companies, which would deter misconduct. The issue also has normative implications because if markets consistently protected consumers, society would need fewer regulations and …