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Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Consumer Protection Law
The Property Law Of Tokens, Juliet M. Moringiello, Christopher K. Odinet
The Property Law Of Tokens, Juliet M. Moringiello, Christopher K. Odinet
Faculty Scholarship
Non-fungible tokens—or NFTs, as they are better known—have taken the world by storm. The idea behind an NFT is that by owning a certain thing (specifically, a digital token that is tracked on a blockchain), one can hold property rights in something else (either a real or intangible asset). In the early part of 2021, NFTs for items ranging from a gif of a pop-tart cat with a rainbow tail, to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, to a New York Times column (about NFTs!) have sold for millions of dollars over the internet. Promoters assert that NFTs are the …
Unwaivable: Public Enforcement Claims And Mandatory Arbitration, Myriam E. Gilles, Gary Friedman
Unwaivable: Public Enforcement Claims And Mandatory Arbitration, Myriam E. Gilles, Gary Friedman
Faculty Articles
This essay, written for a conference on the “pathways and hurdles” that lie ahead in consumer litigation, is the first to examine the implications of California’s recent jurisprudence holding public enforcement claims unwaivable in standard-form contracts of adhesion, and the inevitable clash with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisional law interpreting the Federal Arbitration Act. With its rich history of rebuffing efforts to deprive citizens of public rights through private contract, California provides an ideal laboratory for exploring this escalating conflict.
Smart Contracts And The Illusion Of Automated Enforcement, Danielle D'Onfro
Smart Contracts And The Illusion Of Automated Enforcement, Danielle D'Onfro
Scholarship@WashULaw
This symposium essay explores the barriers to deploying smart contracts in the consumer finance space: the humans themselves, existing consumer protection laws, and the other businesses who have financial contracts with consumers but that cannot deploy smart contracts. These three barriers render perfectly automated enforcement all but impossible. Nevertheless, there may be room for modifiable smart contracts in the consumer financial space although these contracts may be only marginally more efficient than traditional contracts.
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 …
Flawed Transparency: Shared Data Collection And Disclosure Challenges For Google Glass And Similar Technologies, Jonathan I. Ezor
Flawed Transparency: Shared Data Collection And Disclosure Challenges For Google Glass And Similar Technologies, Jonathan I. Ezor
Jonathan I. Ezor
Current privacy law and best practices assume that the party collecting the data is able to describe and disclose its practices to those from and about whom the data are collected. With emerging technologies such as Google Glass, the information being collected by the wearer may be automatically shared to one or more third parties whose use may be substantially different from that of the wearer. Often, the wearer may not even know what information is being uploaded, and how it may be used. This paper will analyze the current state of U.S. law and compliance regarding personal information collection …
Dodd-Frank, Regulatory Innovation, And The Safety Of Consumer Financial Products, Melissa Jacoby
Dodd-Frank, Regulatory Innovation, And The Safety Of Consumer Financial Products, Melissa Jacoby
Melissa B. Jacoby
Among the many parts of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, few have received as much mainstream attention as the creation of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. As is often the case with legislation in recent years, though, some of the most vocalized critiques of the Bureau lack a foundation in Dodd-Frank as enacted or in the Bureau’s start-up efforts. This brief essay explores the nature of the Bureau and its promising possibilities for regulatory innovation that should transcend stale debates about regulatory overreach or command-and-control approaches. This commentary also reviews the unusual dialogue preceding Dodd-Frank …