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Consumer Protection Law Commons

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Consumers

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Institution
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Articles 31 - 60 of 75

Full-Text Articles in Consumer Protection Law

A Disclosure-Focused Approach To Compelled Commercial Speech, Andrew C. Budzinski May 2014

A Disclosure-Focused Approach To Compelled Commercial Speech, Andrew C. Budzinski

Michigan Law Review

In 2010, the Food and Drug Administration passed a rule revising compelled disclaimers on tobacco products pursuant to the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The rule required that tobacco warnings include something new: all tobacco products now had to bear one of nine graphic images to accompany the text. Tobacco companies filed suit contesting the constitutionality of the rule, arguing that the government violated their right to free commercial speech by compelling disclosure of the graphic content. Yet First Amendment jurisprudence lacks a doctrinally consistent standard for reviewing such compelled disclosures. Courts’ analyses typically depend on whether the …


Rationality's Reach, Adam B. Badawi Apr 2014

Rationality's Reach, Adam B. Badawi

Michigan Law Review

Economic analysis and the rational actor model have dominated contracts scholarship for at least a generation. In the past fifteen years or so, however, a group of behaviorists has challenged the ability of the rational choice model to account for consumer behavior. These behaviorists are not trying to dismantle the entire enterprise. They generally accept the fundamentals of economic analysis but argue that the rational actor model can be improved by incorporating evidence of decisionmaking flaws that people exhibit. Oren Bar-Gill has been one of the foremost and influential proponents of a behaviorist take on contracts, and his recent book, …


Ftc Regulation Of Endorsements In Advertising: In The Consumer's Behalf?, Whitney F. Washburn Feb 2013

Ftc Regulation Of Endorsements In Advertising: In The Consumer's Behalf?, Whitney F. Washburn

Pepperdine Law Review

The Federal Trade Commission, as recently as 1980, has issued Guides designed to prevent deception of consumers due to misleading product endorsement advertising by celebrities and others. The new Guides indicate that the FTC intends to continue its recent trend offending advertisers and even endorsers liable for deceptive endorsement practices. However, a critical analysis of the Guides, in light of marketplace realities and consumer needs, raises serious question as to whether they are likely to promote accurate endorsement advertising. This comment will explore pre-1980 regulations and trace the progression of controls through the advent of the FTC Guides. The Guides …


Giving Consumers A Leg To Stand On: Finding Plaintiffs A Legislative Solution To The Barrier From Federal Courts In Data Security Breach Suits, Patricia Cave Jan 2013

Giving Consumers A Leg To Stand On: Finding Plaintiffs A Legislative Solution To The Barrier From Federal Courts In Data Security Breach Suits, Patricia Cave

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.


Toward Legitimacy Through Collaborative Governance: An Analysis Of The Effect Of South Carolina's Office Of Regulatory Staff On Public Utility Regulation, William H. Ellerbe Jan 2011

Toward Legitimacy Through Collaborative Governance: An Analysis Of The Effect Of South Carolina's Office Of Regulatory Staff On Public Utility Regulation, William H. Ellerbe

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

In 2004 the South Carolina General Assembly instituted a major reform to its system of public utility regulation. Previously, the Public Service Commission, the administrative agency in charge of regulating public utilities, both adjudicated utility proceedings and, through its staff,a advocated for the public interest. A scandal concerning revelations of extensive ex parte communications between regulated utilities and members of the Public Service Commission led to the 2004 reform, which created the Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS) as a separate agency to perform the Commission's advocative functions. In my research, I use data on fuel factor proceedings before and after …


Technology Convergence And Federalism: Who Should Decide The Future Of Telecommunications Regulation?, Daniel A. Lyons Dec 2010

Technology Convergence And Federalism: Who Should Decide The Future Of Telecommunications Regulation?, Daniel A. Lyons

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article critically examines the division of regulatory jurisdiction over telecommunications issues between the federal government and the states. Currently, the line between federal and state jurisdiction varies depending on the service at issue. This compartmentalization might have made sense fifteen years ago, but the advent of technology convergence has largely rendered this model obsolete. Yesterday's telephone and cable companies now compete head-to-head to offer consumers the vaunted "triple play" of voice, video, and internet services. But these telecommunications companies are finding it increasingly difficult to fit new operations into arcane, rigid regulatory compartments. Moreover, services that consumers view as …


Proposed Legislation: A (Second) Modest Proposal To Protect Virginia Consumers Against Defective Products, Peter Nash Swisher Nov 2008

Proposed Legislation: A (Second) Modest Proposal To Protect Virginia Consumers Against Defective Products, Peter Nash Swisher

University of Richmond Law Review

The purpose of this article is to suggest a viable, necessary, and eminently reasonable legislative alternative that the Virginia General Assembly should enact for legitimate and pressing public policy reasons in order to properly protect Virginia consumers from defective and unreasonably dangerous consumer products.Adopting this alternative would bring the Commonwealth of Virginia into the mainstream of twenty-first century American, and transnational, products liability law.


Arbitration Costs And Forum Accessibility: Empirical Evidence, Christopher R. Drahozal Jul 2008

Arbitration Costs And Forum Accessibility: Empirical Evidence, Christopher R. Drahozal

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Article, written for this symposium issue on "Empirical Studies of Mandatory Arbitration," I examine the available empirical evidence on these two questions. I take "mandatory arbitration" to refer to pre-dispute arbitration clauses in consumer and employment (and maybe franchise) contracts. Accordingly, I limit my consideration of the empirical evidence to those types of contracts. I do not discuss empirical studies of international arbitrations, which almost always arise out of agreements between commercial entities. Nor do I discuss empirical studies of court-annexed arbitrations, which may not derive from party agreement and do not ordinarily proceed to a binding award.


Arbitration's Summer Soldiers: An Empirical Study Of Arbitration Clauses In Consumer And Nonconsumer Contracts, Theodore Eisenberg, Geoffrey P. Miller, Emily Sherwin Jul 2008

Arbitration's Summer Soldiers: An Empirical Study Of Arbitration Clauses In Consumer And Nonconsumer Contracts, Theodore Eisenberg, Geoffrey P. Miller, Emily Sherwin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

We provide the first study of varying use of arbitration clauses across contracts within the same firms. Using a sample of 26 consumer contracts and 164 nonconsumer contracts from large public corporations, we compared the use of arbitration clauses in firms' consumer and nonconsumer contracts. Over three-quarters of the consumer agreements provided for mandatory arbitration but less than 10% of the firms' material nonconsumer, nonemployment contracts included arbitration clauses. The absence of arbitration provisions in the vast majority of material contracts suggests that, ex ante, many firms value, even prefer, litigation over arbitration to resolve disputes with peers. Our data …


One-Sided Contracts In Competitive Consumer Markets, Lucian A. Bebchuk, Richard A. Posner Mar 2006

One-Sided Contracts In Competitive Consumer Markets, Lucian A. Bebchuk, Richard A. Posner

Michigan Law Review

The usual assumption in economic analysis of law is that in a competitive market without informational asymmetries, the terms of contracts between sellers and buyers will be optimal-that is, that any deviation from these terms would impose expected costs on one party that exceed benefits to the other. But could there be cases in which "one-sided" contracts containing terms that impose a greater expected cost on one side than benefit on the other-would be found in competitive markets even in the absence of fraud, prohibitive information costs, or other market imperfections? That is the possibility we explore in this Article.


The Boilerplate Puzzle, Douglas G. Baird Mar 2006

The Boilerplate Puzzle, Douglas G. Baird

Michigan Law Review

The warranty that comes with your laptop computer is one of its many product attributes. The laptop has a screen of a particular size. Its microprocessors work at a particular speed, and the battery lasts a given amount of time between recharging. The hard drive has a certain capacity and mean time to failure. There is an instruction manual, online technical support (or lack thereof), and software. Then there are the warranties that the seller makes (or does not make) that are also part of the bundle. Just as I know the size of the screen, but nothing about the …


Online Boilerplate: Would Mandatory Website Disclosure Of E-Standard Terms Backfire?, Robert A. Hillman Mar 2006

Online Boilerplate: Would Mandatory Website Disclosure Of E-Standard Terms Backfire?, Robert A. Hillman

Michigan Law Review

A law backfires when it produces results opposite from those its drafters intended. Lots of laws may have backfired. For example, people opposed to hate crimes legislation think that the laws "inflame prejudice rather than eradicate it." The Endangered Species Act, according to some analysts, has helped destroy rather than preserve the creatures listed by the Act. Even consumer protection laws, some believe, increase prices and confuse consumers instead of protecting them. This Article analyzes whether mandatory website disclosure of standard terms, advocated by some as a potential solution to market failures when consumers contract over the Internet, is another …


The Hidden Roles Of Boilerplate And Standard-Form Contracts: Strategic Imposition Of Transaction Costs, Segmentation Of Consumers, And Anticompetitive Effects, David Gilo, Ariel Porat Mar 2006

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 …


Contra Proferentem: The Allure Of Ambiguous Boilerplate, Michelle E. Boardman Mar 2006

Contra Proferentem: The Allure Of Ambiguous Boilerplate, Michelle E. Boardman

Michigan Law Review

Bad boilerplate can shake one' s faith in evolution; not only does it not die away, it multiplies. The puzzle is why. Much of boilerplate is ambiguous or incomprehensible. This alienates consumers and is i ncreasingly punished by courts construing the language against the drafter. There must, therefore, be some hidden allure to ambiguous boilerplate. The popular theory is trickery: drafters lure consumers in with promising language that comes to nothing in court. But this trick would require consumers to do three things they do not do-read the language, understand it, and take comfort in it. There is a hidden …


Search And Persuasion In Trademark Law, Barton Beebe Aug 2005

Search And Persuasion In Trademark Law, Barton Beebe

Michigan Law Review

The consumer, we are led to believe, is the measure of all things in trademark law. Trademarks exist only to the extent that consumers perceive them as designations of source. Infringement occurs only to the extent that consumers perceive one trademark as referring to the source of another. The most "intellectual" of the intellectual properties, trademarks are a property purely of consumers' minds. The simple idealist ontology underlying trademark law is largely responsible for the law's characteristic instability. Since 1992, the Supreme Court has considered - and in some cases, reconsidered - seven trademark cases. The Court's copyright cases garner …


La Responsabilisation De L'Economie: What The United States Can Learn From The New French Law On Consumer Overindebtedness, Jason J. Kilborn Jan 2005

La Responsabilisation De L'Economie: What The United States Can Learn From The New French Law On Consumer Overindebtedness, Jason J. Kilborn

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article on the French law continues a study of European consumer debt-relief systems, which the author began previously in an article on the German system. With rapid legal and practical developments in consumer debt-relief law, Europe provides an excellent comparative legal laboratory for observing the potential benefits and pitfalls of consumer bankruptcy reforms. In particular, French and German experiences with long-term payment plans shed useful light on the great debate raging in the United States over similar plans.


Exit And Voice In American Health Care, Marc A. Rodwin Jul 1999

Exit And Voice In American Health Care, Marc A. Rodwin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Until the 1960s, the main way for patients to affect health care institutions was by choosing their doctors or hospitals or leaving those with which they were dissatisfied. They had few avenues to exert their voice to bring about change through complaints, politics, or other means. The balance between exit and voice shifted in the 1960s, as the women's health and disability rights movements brought about change by increased use of political voice and, to a lesser degree, by exit. With the growth of managed care since the 1980s, enrolled individuals have had fewer opportunities for exit and greater potential …


Restating The Law: The Dilemmas Of Products Liability, Robert L. Rabin Dec 1997

Restating The Law: The Dilemmas Of Products Liability, Robert L. Rabin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Tracing products liability law from its origins to present day developments, Professor Rabin discusses the long-standing presence of interwoven strands of contract and tort ideology, as well as the perennial tensions between strict liability and negligence. These themes are evident both in the distinctly influential California case law and in the two Restatement efforts to systematize the doctrine that has emerged nationally. Rabin identifies the manner in which foundational ideological precepts of consumer expectations and enterprise liability have contributed to a continuously dynamic, if often unsettled, debate over the appropriate regime for resolving product injury claims.


Constructing A Roof Before The Foundation Is Prepared: The Restatement (Third) Of Torts: Products Liability, Section 2(B) Design Defect, Frank J. Vandall Dec 1997

Constructing A Roof Before The Foundation Is Prepared: The Restatement (Third) Of Torts: Products Liability, Section 2(B) Design Defect, Frank J. Vandall

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability section 2(b) is a wish list from manufacturing America. It returns products liability law to something more restrictive than negligence. What is new from the Reporters is that their proposal is written on a clean sheet of paper. Messy and awkward concepts such as precedent, policy, and case accuracy have been brushed aside for the purpose of tort reform. There has been almost no attempt to evaluate strict liability precedent or the policies underlying previous cases and the Restatement (Second) section 402A. Section 2b (the roof) has been drafted with little consideration of …


Book Review, Juanita V. Field, Thomas G. Field Jr. Jun 1993

Book Review, Juanita V. Field, Thomas G. Field Jr.

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Review of: WESLEY A. MAGAT & W. KIP VISCUSI, INFORMATIONAL APPROACHES TO REGULATION. (MIT Press 1992) [274 pp.] Appendices, endnotes, illustrations, index, list of titles in the Regulation of Economic Activity series, list of tables and figures, preface, series foreword. LC 91-29483; ISBN 0-262-13277-X. [$32.50 cloth. 55 Hayward Street; Cambridge MA 02142.]


Rescuing The Revolution: The Revived Case For Enterprise Liability, Steven P. Croley, Jon D. Hanson Feb 1993

Rescuing The Revolution: The Revived Case For Enterprise Liability, Steven P. Croley, Jon D. Hanson

Michigan Law Review

The article proceeds as follows. Part I defines important terms and introduces the two-by-four Products Liability Matrix by explaining the eight possible positions that might be taken with respect to the mutability and liability-standard dimensions of products liability. Part II provides a backdrop for the current products liability debate, first by setting out a capsule history of the evolution of the modem products liability regime, and then by explaining the arguments offered by the "first generation" of products liability scholars to justify expanded manufacturer liability. Part II also illustrates the utility of the Products Liability Matrix by locating many of …


Empowering The Russian Consumer In A Market Economy, James P. Nehf Jan 1993

Empowering The Russian Consumer In A Market Economy, James P. Nehf

Michigan Journal of International Law

One purpose of this article is to examine how the legislative product of a declining socialist state will benefit Russian consumers during the unusual circumstances characterizing the period of market transformation. A second purpose is to familiarize Western consumerists with the decidedly pro-consumer features of the Russian law. Part I analyzes the consumer law's provisions that elevate the legal status of consumers when they purchase goods and services. Part II examines the legislation from a different perspective - as a set of legal norms affecting the operation of consumer markets generally. Part III discusses the enforcement mechanisms established in the …


Defining "Green": Toward Regulation Of Environmental Marketing Claims, Roger D. Wynne May 1991

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 …


Revolt Against Regulation: The Rise And Pause Of The Consumer Movement, Michigan Law Review Feb 1984

Revolt Against Regulation: The Rise And Pause Of The Consumer Movement, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Revolt Against Regulation: The Rise and Pause of the Consumer Movement by Michael Pertschuk


How Consumer Remedies Fail, Bryant G. Garth Mar 1983

How Consumer Remedies Fail, Bryant G. Garth

Michigan Law Review

A Review of No Access to Law: Alternatives to the American Judicial System edited by Laura Nader


An Act Of Faith, Jerry J. Phillips Mar 1982

An Act Of Faith, Jerry J. Phillips

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Modern Products Liability Law by Rocjard A. Epstein


Consumer Warranty Claims Against Companies In Chapter 11 Reorganizations, Elizabeth Warner Jan 1981

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 Apr 1977

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 …


Criminal Consumer Fraud: A Victim-Oriented Analysis, Donald P. Rothschild, Bruce C. Throne Mar 1976

Criminal Consumer Fraud: A Victim-Oriented Analysis, Donald P. Rothschild, Bruce C. Throne

Michigan Law Review

The poor and the elderly are the principal victims of the high pressure and often sophisticated sale techniques of criminal consumer fraud in this country. The problem is compounded when the poor and the elderly live in inner cities where legal assistance is costly and inadequate, and the courts, prosecutors, and investigators are overburdened. Yet the executive and legislative agencies responsible for law enforcement continue to assign a low priority to criminal consumer fraud. President Ford has reflected this orientation: "For effective management [of law enforcement], we first have to have some hard decisions on priorities. As a starter, I …


The Role Of The Michigan Attorney General In Consumer And Environmental Protection, Michigan Law Review Apr 1974

The Role Of The Michigan Attorney General In Consumer And Environmental Protection, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In an effort to clarify the role of the attorney general as public representative, this Note will examine the functioning of the office of the Michigan attorney general. After an analysis of the nature and extent of the attorney general's powers and of his current utilization of those powers, several proposals to increase his effectiveness will be discussed.