Consumer Protection Law Commons^™

Duped By Dope: The Sackler Family’S Attempt To Escape Opioid Liability And The Need To Close The Non-Debtor Release Loophole, Bryson T. Strachan

Law Student Publications

The opioid epidemic continues to rage on in the United States, ravaging its rural populations. One of its main causes? OxyContin. Purdue Pharma (“Purdue”), the maker of OxyContin, aggressively marketed opioids to the American public while racking up a fortune of over $13 billion dollars for its owners,3 the Sackler family. As a result, roughly 3,000 lawsuits were filed against Purdue and members of the Sackler family. Generally, the lawsuits alleged that Purdue and members of the Sackler family knew OxyContin was highly addictive yet aggressively marketed high dosages of the drug and misrepresented the drug as nonaddictive and without …

Antitrust And Consumer Protection, Leslie Sara Hyman, Matthew J. Mcgowan

Student Scholarship

Consumer welfare is the common concern of the antitrust laws, the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act (DTPA), the Texas Insurance Code (TIC), and various other statutes prohibiting fraudulent conduct in dealing with consumers. Antitrust laws, however, primarily address the misuse of market power to harm consumers, while anti-deception statutes focus on consumer harm brought about through

deception and a litany of other unlawful practices. The antitrust laws and the anti-fraud statutory schemes therefore are best viewed as focusing on complementary aspects of consumer welfare.

This article covers significant developments under federal and Texas antitrust laws and consumer protection laws …

Consumer Protection, Matthew J. Mcgowan

Student Scholarship

The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act (DTPA)1 focuses on consumer harm brought about through deception.2 This article covers significant developments under the DTPA during the Survey period, December 1, 2016, through November 31, 2017.

Some of the salient changes to the DTPA came through statutory additions inserted by the 85th Texas Legislature during the Summer 2017 session, which added to the DTPA’s laundry list of violative acts and also amended the Texas Insurance Code such that related DTPA claims may be more easily removed to federal court. Also, case law developments have, among other things, revealed that certain DTPA …

The Uneasy Case For Patent Federalism, Roger Allan Ford

Law Faculty Scholarship

Nationwide uniformity is often considered an essential feature of the patent system, necessary to fulfill that system’s disclosure and incentive purposes. In the last few years, however, more than half the states have enacted laws that seek to disrupt this uniformity by making it harder for patent holders to enforce their patents. There is an easy case to be made against giving states greater authority over the patent system: doing so would threaten to disrupt the system’s balance between innovation incentives and a robust public domain and would permit rent seeking by states that disproportionately produce or consume innovation.

There …

Breaking Up Payday: Anti-Agglomeration Zoning & Consumer Welfare, Sheila R. Foster

Faculty Scholarship

In the last decade, dozens of local governments have enacted zoning ordinances designed to limit the concentration of payday lenders and other alternative financial services providers (AFSPs), such as check-cashing businesses and auto title loan shops, in their communities. The main impetus for these ordinances is to shield economically vulnerable residents from the industry’s lending practices in the absence of sufficiently aggressive federal and state consumer protection regulation. This Essay casts considerable doubt on whether zoning is the appropriate regulatory tool to achieve the consumer protection and welfare goals animating these ordinances. The author’s analysis of the aftermath of payday …

Dirty Remics, Revisited, David J. Reiss, Bradley T. Borden

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Subprime Crisis And The Link Between Consumer Financial Protection And Systemic Risk, Erik F. Gerding

Publications

This Article argues that the current global financial crisis, which was first called the “subprime crisis,” demonstrates the need to revisit the division between financial regulations designed to protect consumers from excessively risky loans and safety-and-soundness regulations intended to protect financial markets from the collapse of financial institutions. Consumer financial protection can, and must, serve a role not only in protecting individuals from excessive risk, but also in protecting markets from systemic risk. Economic studies indicate it is not merely high rates of defaults on consumer loans, but also unpredictable and highly correlated defaults that create risks for both lenders …

A Digital Age Communications Act Paradigm For Federal-State Relations, Kyle D. Dixon, Philip J. Weiser

Publications

This article captures the effort of the Digital Age Communications Act (DACA) to craft a new framework for the federal-state relationship in implementing a next generation telecommunications regulatory regime. In particular, it sets forth a DACA model that would implement a "rule of law" regulatory paradigm for an era of technological dynamism. This era requires, as the article explains, a coherent federal framework that circumscribes the role of state and local authorities so as to advance sound competition policy goals. The sole exception to this policy is the recognition that a basic local service rate retains both political and practical …

Products Liability Harmonization: A Uniform Standard, Rebecca Korzec

All Faculty Scholarship

Among industrialized nations, the United States is unique in addressing tort law at the state rather than the national level. For example, Australia and Canada, which share a common-law heritage with the United States, have federal tort systems. The United States approach may be appropriate in some tort settings, such as in the premises liability or motor vehicle accident context (not involving a claim of products liability), where the state rule’s impact remains within that state’s geographical boundaries. Unlike the simple 'fender-bender', which occurs within the borders of one state, the typical product is manufactured and marketed nationally or internationally. …

Introducing Revised Article 9 Of The Uniform Commercial Code, John L. Mccabe, Arthur H. Travers

Publications

No abstract provided.

State Attorney General Actions, The Tobacco Litigation, And The Doctrine Of Parens Patriae, Richard P. Ieyoub, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

On November 23, 1998, a master settlement agreement settled the lawsuits of forty-six states against the tobacco industry. The settlement brings about historic public health initiatives, such as the end to outdoor advertising, the ban on using cartoon characters in advertisements, and the creation of public education trusts. It also provides that the settling tobacco manufacturers will pay over $200 billion over the next twenty-five years. Some of the legal theories upon which states relied have implications beyond the tobacco litigation. Of particular importance is the application of the theory of parens patriae in the tobacco litigation. That theory may …

The Usury Trompe L'Oeil, James J. White

Articles

This Article demonstrates how the interaction of a federal statute passed in 1864,1 a case decided by the Supreme Court in 1978,2 and modem technology has legally debarred every state legislature from controlling consumer interest rates in its state-but not from passing laws that appear to do so-and has politically debarred the Congress from setting federal rates to replace the state rates. As a consequence, the elaborate usury laws on the books of most states are only a trompe l'oeil, a "visual deception... rendered in extremely fine detail ... ." The presence of these finely detailed laws gives the illusion …

A Central Filing System For Financing Statements, Arthur H. Travers Jr., John L. Mccabe

Publications

No abstract provided.

State Consumer Protection In A Federal System, Robert M. O'Neil

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Increasing interest in consumerism has brought intensified efforts at every level of government to protect the consumer. While federal regulation seems desirable for nationally marketed products and interstate activities, the states retain the duty to protect the health and safety of their citizens. Where state regulation is more restrictive than concurrent federal regulation, however, the constitutional issue of preemption arises.

This Article analyzes the factors which have influenced the courts in resolving conflicts between federal and state regulation in the consumer field. Emphasizing the need for concurrent regulation, the author formulates guidelines by which the courts can examine the purposes …

The New Kansas Buyer Protection Act, Arthur H. Travers Jr.

Publications

No abstract provided.