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Articles 1 - 19 of 19
Full-Text Articles in Consumer Protection Law
Consumer Uncertainty In Trademark Law: An Experimental Investigation, Barton Beebe, Roy Germano, Christopher Jon Sprigman, Joel H. Steckel
Consumer Uncertainty In Trademark Law: An Experimental Investigation, Barton Beebe, Roy Germano, Christopher Jon Sprigman, Joel H. Steckel
Emory Law Journal
Nearly every important issue in trademark litigation turns on the question of what consumers in the marketplace believe to be true. To address this question, litigants frequently present consumer survey evidence, which can play a decisive role in driving the outcomes of trademark disputes. But trademark survey evidence has often proven to be highly controversial, not least because it has sometimes been perceived as open to expert manipulation. In this Article, we identify and present empirical evidence of a fundamental problem with trademark survey evidence: while the leading survey formats in trademark law test for whether consumers hold a particular …
Digital Market Perfection, Rory Van Loo
Digital Market Perfection, Rory Van Loo
Michigan Law Review
Google’s, Apple’s, and other companies’ automated assistants are increasingly serving as personal shoppers. These digital intermediaries will save us time by purchasing grocery items, transferring bank accounts, and subscribing to cable. The literature has only begun to hint at the paradigm shift needed to navigate the legal risks and rewards of this coming era of automated commerce. This Article begins to fill that gap by surveying legal battles related to contract exit, data access, and deception that will determine the extent to which automated assistants are able to help consumers to search and switch, potentially bringing tremendous societal benefits. Whereas …
Consumer Bitcredit And Fintech Lending, Christopher K. Odinet
Consumer Bitcredit And Fintech Lending, Christopher K. Odinet
Faculty Scholarship
The digital economy is changing everything, including how we borrow money. In the wake of the 2008 crisis, banks pulled back in their lending and, as a result, many consumers and small businesses found themselves unable to access credit. A wave of online firms called fintech lenders have filled the space left vacant by traditional financial institutions. These platforms are fast making antiques out of many mainstream lending practices, such as long paper applications and face-to-face meetings. Instead, through underwriting by automation — utilizing big data (including social media data) and machine learning — loan processing that once took days …
Consumer Preferences For Performance Defaults, Franklin G. Snyder, Ann M. Mirabito
Consumer Preferences For Performance Defaults, Franklin G. Snyder, Ann M. Mirabito
Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review
Commercial law in the United States is designed to facilitate private transactions, and thus to enforce the presumed intent of the parties, who generally are free to negotiate the terms they choose. But these contracts inevitably have gaps, both because the parties cannot anticipate every situation that might arise from their relationship, and because negotiation is not costless. When courts are faced with these gaps in a litigation context, they supply default terms to fill them. These defaults usually are set to reflect what courts believe similar parties would have agreed to if they had addressed the issue. These “majoritarian” …
Tesla And The Car Dealers' Lobby, Daniel A. Crane
Tesla And The Car Dealers' Lobby, Daniel A. Crane
Articles
Tesla Motors, the offspring of entrepreneur Elon Musk (who brought us Pay-Pal and SpaceX), is the most exciting automotive development in many decades and a marquee story of American technological dynamism and innovation. The company’s luxury electric cars have caused a sensation in the auto industry, including a review by Consumer Reports calling Tesla’s Model S the best car it ever tested. Despite the acclaim, Tesla faces enormous challenges Despite the acclaim, Tesla faces enormous challenges in penetrating an automotive market that has been dominated for a century by internal combustion engines. Not only must it build cars that customers …
Debt-Buyer Lawsuits And Inaccurate Data, Peter A. Holland
Debt-Buyer Lawsuits And Inaccurate Data, Peter A. Holland
Faculty Scholarship
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 …
Debt-Buyer Lawsuits And Inaccurate Data, Peter A. Holland
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 …
Warranties In The Box, James J. White
Warranties In The Box, James J. White
Articles
Thousands of times each day, a buyer opens a box that contains a new computer or other electronic device. There he finds written material including an express "Limited Warranty." Sometimes the box has come by FedEx directly from the manufacturer; other times the buyer has carried it home from a retail merchant. Despite the fact that it is standard practice for the manufacturer to include a limited written express warranty on the sale of such products,' and despite the fact that both the manufacturer and the buyer believe that warranty to be legally enforceable, the law on its enforceability is …
The Hidden Roles Of Boilerplate And Standard-Form Contracts: Strategic Imposition Of Transaction Costs, Segmentation Of Consumers, And Anticompetitive Effects, David Gilo, Ariel Porat
The Hidden Roles Of Boilerplate And Standard-Form Contracts: Strategic Imposition Of Transaction Costs, Segmentation Of Consumers, And Anticompetitive Effects, David Gilo, Ariel Porat
Michigan Law Review
Standard-form contracts offered to consumers contain numerous terms and clauses, most of which are ancillary to the main terms of the transaction. We call these ancillary terms "boilerplate provisions." Since most consumers do not read boilerplate provisions or, if they do, find them hard to understand, courts are suspicious of boilerplate provisions and sometimes find them unenforceable under the doctrine of unconscionability. At times, courts conclude that harsh terms have not been accepted by consumers in the first place and therefore are not included in the contract, and on other occasions courts interpret boilerplate provisions in favor of consumers, applying …
Ucc Proposals Concerning Consumer Transactions, James J. White
Ucc Proposals Concerning Consumer Transactions, James J. White
Other Publications
Professor Grant Gilmore once suggested that farmers would like a two section law. Section one would state "It shall be against the law to refuse to lend money to a farmer." Section two would state "It shall be against the law to collect a debt from a farmer." In a similar vein one might state the iron rule of consumer law, namely "No right that has ever been granted to a consumer, however ill considered and unjustified, may thereafter be withdrawn." Believing that some of the proposals for consumer protection that have been added in Revised Article 9 are not …
Proposed Revisions Concerning Products Liability Caveat Vendor, James J. White
Proposed Revisions Concerning Products Liability Caveat Vendor, James J. White
Other Publications
Both industrial sellers and consumer sellers should look at proposals for revision of the sections relating to warranty liability in Article 2. Particularly important are the sections on warranty, express and implied, on third-party liability, disclaimers and limitation of remedy, notice, and statute of limitations. Using current law as a baseline, revised Article 2 increases sellers' liability in at least half a dozen ways and decreases it in no significant way.
Defining "Green": Toward Regulation Of Environmental Marketing Claims, Roger D. Wynne
Defining "Green": Toward Regulation Of Environmental Marketing Claims, Roger D. Wynne
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note joins a rising chorus calling for government regulation of green marketing claims. It attempts to encourage and add a sense of urgency to a burgeoning regulatory movement by highlighting some of the legal issues that such regulation entails. Part I identifies a gap in the law: the inability of current truth-in-advertising laws to clarify the legality of green marketing claims. Part II urges bridging that gap quickly; it examines the costs of continued nonregulation and describes some of the forms regulation is taking. Part III attempts to allay any fears that such regulations might be challenged on first …
Consumer Warranty Claims Against Companies In Chapter 11 Reorganizations, Elizabeth Warner
Consumer Warranty Claims Against Companies In Chapter 11 Reorganizations, Elizabeth Warner
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This article examines the rights of individuals who have purchased warranted goods from a business that subsequently undergoes reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978. Part I establishes that warranty rights are claims in bankruptcy and outlines the procedure that must be followed by a creditor for distribution from the debtor's estate. Part II focuses on how warranty claims are treated in Chapter 11. Part III discusses ways to alleviate the warranty creditor's representational burden, particularly through the intervention and aid of public interest groups. This article concludes that . warranty creditors will receive favorable treatment …
Efts: Consumer Protection Under The Ucc, Susan E. Jinnett
Efts: Consumer Protection Under The Ucc, Susan E. Jinnett
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In view of the economic significance of the payments system, the laws governing it must be equitable and comprehensive. The development of the commercial law applicable to EFTS's, however, currently lags behind the growth of these systems. Threats to the integrity of EFTS's stem from lost, stolen, or forged access cards, illegal taps into communication lines, physical impairment of the equipment, or improper programming. The legal rights and liabilities of consumers where the integrity of an EFTS has been breached remains unclear, in part because the status of EFTS's under current law is uncertain. The rights of the parties involved …
Consumer Complaints: A Proposed Federal Trade Regulation Rule, Howard R. Lurie
Consumer Complaints: A Proposed Federal Trade Regulation Rule, Howard R. Lurie
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
It is no secret that most consumers are unable to protect themselves in the marketplace, yet government assistance to the consumer is frequently unavailable. All too often the bureaus of government are interested primarily in controversies of major significance. Minor consumer complaints are viewed as an annoyance that distract and interfere with more important matters. What must be done to protect consumers is to redress the balance of power now heavily weighted in favor of business. To do so requires that government go beyond current concepts of appropriate consumer protection and establish unorthodox remedies. One such remedy is suggested in …
New Jersey Retail Installment Sales Act, Eric A. Oesterle
New Jersey Retail Installment Sales Act, Eric A. Oesterle
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The effect of the enactment of the New Jersey bill is that a "retail buyer" may now assert against an assignee of the installment contract or subsequent "holder" of the negotiable note any defenses he has against the retail installment seller. The new law would appear to be one of the most comprehensive laws of its type to be enacted. However, the draftsmen apparently left a significant loophole, appropriately termed the "specious cash sale,” which, if exploited, could negate the intended effect of the new law. This note will analyze the bill, compare it with the relevant provisions of the …
Consumer Sensitivity To Interest Rates: An Empirical Study Of New Car Buyers And Auto Loans, James J. White, Frank W. Munger Jr.
Consumer Sensitivity To Interest Rates: An Empirical Study Of New Car Buyers And Auto Loans, James J. White, Frank W. Munger Jr.
Articles
ALTHOUGH it has never been clear whether the consumer needs to be protected from his own folly or from the rapaciousness of those who feed on him, consumer protection is a topic of intense current interest in the courts, in the legislatures, and in the law schools. A number of recent court decisions have attempted to attack problems confronting the consumer; unfortunately, these judicial efforts have succeeded primarily in disclosing the limitations in the courts' ability to deal with such problems. State and federal legislative bodies have pursued more carefully designed remedies. Congress has passed the Truth-in-Lending Act; the National …
Consumer Credit--The Department Store Revolving Charge Account--Usury Resurrected--State V. J.C. Penney Company, Michigan Law Review
Consumer Credit--The Department Store Revolving Charge Account--Usury Resurrected--State V. J.C. Penney Company, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The Attorney General of Wisconsin recently brought an action against the J.C. Penney retailing chain for an injunction against any further charges of 1½% per month on the declining balances of its revolving charge accounts. The state alleged that anything in excess of I% per month was a violation of the $12 per $100 per annum usury ceiling established by its legislature as the maximum chargeable for a loan or forbearance of money. Penney admitted that its monthly charge frequently exceeded the allowable rate but argued that its charge was a "time-price differential," exempt from statutory control under the time-price …
New York Specious Cash Sales Act, Craig D. Holleman
New York Specious Cash Sales Act, Craig D. Holleman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The New York Legislature recently moved to protect consumers in that state from unscrupulous retailers of consumer goods and financers of consumer loans by enacting the Specious Cash Sales Act. The new law is the third in a series of measures designed to remedy certain perceived inequities to which the holder in due course doctrine gives rise in the consumer goods field. Earlier this year, the Legislature undercut complicated mechanisms whereby a finance company could procure from a retailer contracts and obligations containing a waiver-of-defenses provision executed by the buyer-consumer. This law in turn complemented a still earlier statute which …