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Articles 1 - 24 of 24
Full-Text Articles in Consumer Protection Law
Outlawing Corporate Prosecution Deals When People Have Died, Peter Reilly
Outlawing Corporate Prosecution Deals When People Have Died, Peter Reilly
Faculty Scholarship
Two Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashes, occurring less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019, resulted in 346 deaths—possibly the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) used an alternative dispute resolution tool called a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) to resolve criminal charges against Boeing and to immunize the company’s senior-level managers from prosecution. In the end, the company admitted to engaging in the criminal behavior, paid a monetary fine, and agreed to cooperate fully with the government—meaning there would be no courtroom trial, no formal adjudication of guilt, and no possibility of …
From Bait To Plate—How Forced Labor In China Taints America’S Seafood Supply Chain: Hearing Before The Cong.-Exec. Comm’N On China, 118th Cong., Oct. 24, 2023 (Statement Of Robert K. Stumberg), Robert Stumberg
Testimony Before Congress
Two-hundred and forty—that’s the number of name-brand stores and institutional suppliers that we all depend on. Through them, we all buy seafood from importers who sell what forced laborers process in Chinese factories and vessels. We do it as families, as schools, as businesses. What is not in that number are the ways we buy forced-labor seafood as governments, mostly through five federal agencies and local school food authorities.
The Outlaw Ocean team, led by Ian Urbina, made transparency happen. They aren’t the first to reveal Xinjiang supply chains. But what distinguishes their seafood reporting is that they literally …
Amazon's Pricing Paradox, Rory Van Loo, Nikita Aggarwal
Amazon's Pricing Paradox, Rory Van Loo, Nikita Aggarwal
Faculty Scholarship
Antitrust scholars have widely debated the apparent paradox of Amazon seemingly wielding monopoly power while offering low prices to consumers. A single company’s behavior thereby helped spark an intellectual renaissance as scholars debated why Amazon’s prices were so low, whether antitrust enforcers should intervene, and, eventually, how the field should be reformed for the era of large online platforms. One of the few things that all parties have agreed upon amidst those contentious conversations is that Amazon offers low prices. This Article challenges that assumption by demonstrating that Amazon charges higher prices than commonly understood. More importantly, unraveling the disconnect …
Confidentiality Clauses In Settlement Agreements After The Consumer Review Fairness Act, Wayne Barnes
Confidentiality Clauses In Settlement Agreements After The Consumer Review Fairness Act, Wayne Barnes
Faculty Scholarship
Online commerce has skyrocketed in recent years, and shoppers are purchasing goods or services online in greater numbers every year. The COVID-19 pandemic has only hastened the trend. One significant aspect of online shopping is the presence of consumer reviews posted by prior purchasers of goods or services, describing their experience with the products, the services and/or the selling merchant. A vast majority of online shoppers say that they rely on these reviews to help inform their purchasing decisions. Positive reviews can be tremendously beneficial to a business’ profitability, whereas negative reviews can be equally detrimental. Users of the internet …
The Private Attorney General In A Time Of Hyper-Polarized Politics, Myriam E. Gilles
The Private Attorney General In A Time Of Hyper-Polarized Politics, Myriam E. Gilles
Faculty Articles
With the enactment of the Federal Trade Commission Act (“FTC Act”) in 1914 and the Wheeler–Lea Act in 1938, Congress sought to establish a brawny federal consumer protection regime to guard against the myriad unfair and deceptive practices that threatened harm to American consumers. But courts in this era interpreted these statutes to confer exclusive enforcement authority in the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), declining to infer a private right of action. For many decades, the resulting enforcement gap in consumer protection law was filled largely by state Unfair and Deceptive Practices Acts (“UDAPs”), which sanction litigation by both public and …
Toward A Canadian Right To Repair: Opportunities And Challenges, Anthony D. Rosborough
Toward A Canadian Right To Repair: Opportunities And Challenges, Anthony D. Rosborough
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This Article draws a picture of the past, present, and future of the right to repair in Canada. It looks to early successes toward automotive right to repair, challenges faced in proposing consumer protection reforms in Ontario and Quebec, and the utility of a proposed copyright “Technological Protection Measure (TPM) exception” allowing circumvention for repair purposes. In light of right to repair priorities identified by Canada’s current federal government, the Article identifies a selection of reforms that could achieve these goals. Such reforms include creating regulations under the Copyright Act governing the use and implementation of TPMs, passing an exception …
Consumers' Perceptions Of Digital Privacy In The United States And Japan, Destiny Randle
Consumers' Perceptions Of Digital Privacy In The United States And Japan, Destiny Randle
Whittier Scholars Program
The purpose of my study is to explore the contours of contemporary consumer privacy protections derived from legislation, regulations and publicly available company policies as a way to get a better understanding of how consumer data is protected. A few examples ranging from company-based consumer protection in the United States to data breaches in Japan will be explored and examined. Finally, this paper includes a comparative survey of consumer perceptions and concerns related to personal data privacy in the U.S. and Japan. As a way to assess the degree to which digital privacy and personal data breaches have adversely influenced …
Gamestopped: How Robinhood’S Gamestop Trading Halt Reveals The Complexities Of Retail Investor Protection, Neal Newman
Gamestopped: How Robinhood’S Gamestop Trading Halt Reveals The Complexities Of Retail Investor Protection, Neal Newman
Faculty Scholarship
Should brokers have the unfettered right to restrict investor trading? GameStop, a brick-and-mortar video game retailer, had been experiencing declining revenues since 2016. However, GameStop saw its share price climb almost 1000 percent in the span of a one- week period from January 21, 2021 to January 27, 2021 due to retail investors buying significant amounts of GameStop shares during that period. Melvin Capital, a hedge fund, ended up losing billions as they were betting that GameStop shares would lose value instead of increase—a practice referred to as short selling. On January 28, 2021, brokers inexplicably halted trading on GameStop …
The Public Stakes Of Consumer Law: The Environment, The Economy, Health, Disinformation, And Beyond, Rory Van Loo
The Public Stakes Of Consumer Law: The Environment, The Economy, Health, Disinformation, And Beyond, Rory Van Loo
Faculty Scholarship
This Article shows how consumer law, a field “derided as the law of small problems,”4 is more accurately viewed as important for addressing large-scale societal threats. It also offers a more integrated conceptual and institutional approach to consumer law so that the field can have a better chance of fulfilling its societal potential.
Part I of this Article outlines the importance of consumer law. It maps consumer law’s connections to some of the most pressing societal threats: climate change, public health, inequality, and disinformation. Part II focuses on consumer law’s place in the legal academy and government. Currently, important …
The Case Against The Debt Tax, Vijay Raghavan
The Case Against The Debt Tax, Vijay Raghavan
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Mandating Repair Scores, Aaron Perzanowski
Mandating Repair Scores, Aaron Perzanowski
Articles
Restrictions on the repair of consumer goods have generated no shortage of policy proposals. This Article considers the empirical and legal case for one particular intervention—requiring firms to calculate and disclose their products’ scores on a uniform reparability index. These repair scores would provide consumers with salient information at or before the point of sale, enabling them to compare products on the basis of the ease and cost of repair. There is considerable empirical research, including assessments of France’s implementation of a similar requirement in recent years, suggesting that repair scores would both inform and empower consumers. Despite likely First …
From The Editors In Chief, Kathleen Claussen, Sergio Puig, Michael Waibel
From The Editors In Chief, Kathleen Claussen, Sergio Puig, Michael Waibel
Articles
No abstract provided.
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
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 …
Price Gouging In A Pandemic, Christopher Buccafusco, Daniel Hemel, Eric L. Talley
Price Gouging In A Pandemic, Christopher Buccafusco, Daniel Hemel, Eric L. Talley
Faculty Scholarship
The COVID-19 pandemic led to acute supply shortages across the country as well as concerns over price increases amid surging demand. In the process, it reawakened a debate about whether and how to regulate “price gouging” — a controversy that continues as inflation has accelerated even as the pandemic abates. Animating this debate is a longstanding conflict between laissez-faire economics, which champions price fluctuations as a means to allocate scarce goods, and perceived norms of consumer fairness, which are thought to cut strongly against sharp price hikes amid shortages.
This Article provides a new, empirically grounded perspective on the price …
The Price Of Fairness, Christopher Buccafusco, Daniel Hemel, Eric Talley
The Price Of Fairness, Christopher Buccafusco, Daniel Hemel, Eric Talley
Faculty Scholarship
The COVID-19 pandemic led to acute supply shortages across the country as well as concerns over price increases amid surging demand. In the process, it reawakened a debate about whether and how to regulate “price gouging”—a controversy that continues as inflation has accelerated even as the pandemic abates. Animating this debate is a longstanding conflict between laissez-faire economics, which champions price fluctuations as a means to allocate scarce goods, and perceived norms of consumer fairness, which are thought to cut strongly against sharp price hikes amid shortages.
This Article provides a new, empirically grounded perspective on the price gouging debate …
Q&A With Lina Khan, Chair Of The U.S. Federal Trade Commission And Mark Glick, Professor Of Economics At The University Of Utah, Lina M. Khan
Faculty Scholarship
Let me tell you a little about Lina. Lina attended Yale Law school and while a third-year law student she wrote her famous and influential article Amazon’s Anti-Trust Paradox. Then, after graduating from law school, she worked as the legal director at the Open Markets Institute and during that period she continued to write a large number of influential antitrust papers. She then joined the faculty of my alma mater, Columbia Law School. In 2019, she was appointed as counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Subcomittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law and, in 2021, President Biden appointed her …
The Age Of Fraud, James Toomey
The Age Of Fraud, James Toomey
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
We think of scams primarily as a problem for older adults. Indeed, in the past few years, states and the federal government have undertaken a range of legal actions designed to prevent seniors, as a distinct class, from scams-- from more harshly punishing perpetrators of scams directed towards older adults to authorizing financial institutions to closely monitor and rapidly freeze the accounts of their older clients. But this successful, popular, and bipartisan law reform movement has taken place without a thorough empirical understanding of whether, in fact, seniors fall victim to scams more frequently than other age groups.
This study …
Protecting Low-Income Consumers In The Era Of Digital Grocery Shopping: Implications For Wic Online Ordering, Qi Zhang, Priyanka Patel, Caitlin M. Lowery
Protecting Low-Income Consumers In The Era Of Digital Grocery Shopping: Implications For Wic Online Ordering, Qi Zhang, Priyanka Patel, Caitlin M. Lowery
Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is now expected to allow participants to redeem their food benefits online, i.e., via online ordering, rather than only in-store. However, it is unclear how this new benefit redemption model may impact participants’ welfare since vendors may have an asymmetric information advantage compared with WIC customers. The WIC online ordering environment may also change the landscape for WIC vendors, which will eventually affect WIC participants. To protect WIC consumers’ rights in the new online ordering model, policymakers need an appropriate legal and regulatory framework. This narrative review provides that …
At The Nexus Of Antitrust & Consumer Protection, Luke Herrine
At The Nexus Of Antitrust & Consumer Protection, Luke Herrine
Articles
This Essay uses Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act to examine the theoretical and practical relationship between antitrust and consumer protection law. It argues that, since roughly 1980, there has been a hegemonic "neoliberal"framework, one that has in recent years been challenged by an emerging "moral economy" framework. The neoliberal framework conceptualizes antitrust as preventing firms from conspiring to throttle output, with a focus primarily on consumers' interests in low prices, and consumer protection as making consumers informed, rational, and able to switch between competitors with relatively low cost. The moral economy framework conceptualizes both areas of law …
Comments Of The Cordell Institute On Ai Accountability, Neil M. Richards, Woodrow Hartzog, Jordan Francis
Comments Of The Cordell Institute On Ai Accountability, Neil M. Richards, Woodrow Hartzog, Jordan Francis
Scholarship@WashULaw
These comments are a response to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's 2023 request for comment on AI accountability (AI Accountability RFC, NTIA–2023–0005).
Responding to NTIA’s recent inquiry into AI assurance and accountability, we offer two main arguments regarding the importance of substantive legal protections. First, a myopic focus on concepts of transparency, bias mitigation, and ethics (for which procedural compliance efforts such as audits, assessments, and certifications are proxies) is insufficient when it comes to the design and implementation of accountable AI systems. We call rules built around transparency and bias mitigation “AI half-measures,” because they provide the appearance …
A Concrete Proposal For Data Loyalty, Neil M. Richards, Woodrow Hartzog, Jordan Francis
A Concrete Proposal For Data Loyalty, Neil M. Richards, Woodrow Hartzog, Jordan Francis
Scholarship@WashULaw
Congress and state legislators are finally experimenting with new privacy frameworks, rights, and duties to move past the thoroughly critiqued “notice and choice” model for data privacy. While many new privacy proposals seek a more fortified version of the fair information practices, some legislators have placed a duty of data loyalty at the heart of their proposed privacy bills. This is important because a duty of data loyalty has the potential to anchor American privacy law in a way analogous to how the European Union approach is grounded in fundamental rights of privacy and data protection.
Unfortunately, there remains some …
Student Loans And Financial Distress: A Qualitative Analysis Of The Most Common Student Loan Complaints, Matthew Adam Bruckner, Christopher J. Ryan Jr.
Student Loans And Financial Distress: A Qualitative Analysis Of The Most Common Student Loan Complaints, Matthew Adam Bruckner, Christopher J. Ryan Jr.
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Student loan servicers are the face of the U.S. student loan system, and they are not well-liked. Using the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (the CFPB) consumer complaint database, we study borrower perceptions of the student loan system. We qualitatively analyzed a sample of complaint narratives drawn from every student loan complaint ever filed with the CFPB. Our analysis of these complaint narratives reveals clear patterns of discontent in four primary areas: 1) a mismatch between ability to repay and repayment options, including problems with forbearance, deferments, the public service loan forgiveness program, income-driven repayment plans, and loan cancellation options; 2) …
Coercive Rideshare Practices: At The Intersection Of Antitrust And Consumer Protection Law In The Gig Economy, Christopher L. Peterson, Marshall Steinbaum
Coercive Rideshare Practices: At The Intersection Of Antitrust And Consumer Protection Law In The Gig Economy, Christopher L. Peterson, Marshall Steinbaum
Utah Law Faculty Scholarship
This Essay considers antitrust and consumer protection liability for coercive practices vis-à-vis drivers that are prevalent in the rideshare industry. Resale price maintenance, nonlinear pay practices, withholding data, and conditioning data access on maintaining a minimum acceptance rate all curtail platform competition, sustaining a high-price, tacitly collusive equilibrium among the few incumbents. Moreover, concealing relevant trip data from drivers is both deceptive and unfair when the platforms are in full possession of the relevant facts. In the absence of these coercive practices, customers too would be better off due to platform competition, which would lower average prices by sharpening competition …
Title Theft, Stewart E. Sterk
Title Theft, Stewart E. Sterk
Faculty Articles
Real property owners across the country have been targeted by scammers who prepare deeds purporting to convey title to property the scammers do not own. Sometimes, the true owners are entirely unaware of these bogus transfers. In other instances, the scammers use misrepresentation to induce unsophisticated owners to sign documents they do not understand.
Property doctrine protects owners against forgery and fraud—the primary vehicles scammers use in their efforts to transfer title. Owners enjoy protection not only against the scammers themselves, but generally against unsuspecting purchasers to whom the scammers transfer purported title.
Recovery of title, however, involves costs and …