Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Consumer protection (18)
- FCC (16)
- Federal Communications Commission (16)
- Regulation (13)
- Telecommunications Act of 1996 (9)
-
- Competition (8)
- Internet (8)
- Deregulation (7)
- FTC (6)
- Privacy (6)
- Products liability (6)
- Public Interest (6)
- CFPB (5)
- Consumer Protection (5)
- Universal Service (5)
- 1996 Act (4)
- Consumer credit (4)
- Credit (4)
- European Union (4)
- Federal Trade Commission (4)
- Technology (4)
- 1992 Cable Act (3)
- Advertising (3)
- Bankruptcy (3)
- First Amendment (3)
- Sales (3)
- United States (3)
- Access to justice (2)
- Amazon Kindle (2)
- Behavioral Advertising (2)
- Publication Year
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 30 of 127
Full-Text Articles in Law
Layered Fiduciaries In The Information Age, Zhaoyi Li
Layered Fiduciaries In The Information Age, Zhaoyi Li
Indiana Law Journal
Technology companies such as Facebook have long been criticized for abusing customers’ personal information and monetizing user data in a manner contrary to customer expectations. Some commentators suggest fiduciary law could be used to restrict how these companies use their customers’ data.1 Under this framework, a new member of the fiduciary family called the “information fiduciary” was born. The concept of an information fiduciary is that a company providing network services to “collect, analyze, use, sell, and distribute personal information” owes customers and end-users a fiduciary duty to use the collected data to promote their interests, thereby assuming fiduciary liability …
Illusory Privacy, Thomas Haley
Illusory Privacy, Thomas Haley
Indiana Law Journal
For decades, regulators, consumer advocates, and privacy theorists have grappled with one of privacy’s most important questions: how to protect private information that consumers unwittingly give away with the click of an “I accept” button. Reform efforts remain mired in a morass of text, focusing on the increasing volume and complexity of firms’ terms of service and privacy policies. This Article moves beyond such existing approaches. By analyzing terms of service and privacy policies from hundreds of top websites—which this Article calls “platform terms”—this Article demonstrates that the prevailing “notice and consent” paradigm of privacy regulation cannot provide meaningful protection. …
Cannabis Derivatives And Trademark Registration: The Case Of Delta-8-Thc, W. Michael Schuster
Cannabis Derivatives And Trademark Registration: The Case Of Delta-8-Thc, W. Michael Schuster
Indiana Law Journal
The legal environment surrounding the cannabis industry is ambiguous and constantly changing. While cannabis is prohibited under federal law, a 2018 statute legalized a variant of the cannabis plant (“hemp”) that is low in its most common intoxicating agents. Recognizing this, entrepreneurs began to process hemp to extract and sell chemicals contained therein. Included in this trend is the extraction of Delta-8 Tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ8-THC)—a psychoactive drug with an increasing market presence in states where most cannabis (e.g., “marijuana”) is illegal.
As competition in the Δ8-THC field emerged, firms sought to distinguish their wares through brand recognition and federal trademark registration. …
How The World's Largest Economies Regulate Data Privacy: Drawbacks, Benefits, & Proposed Solutions, Alexander J. Pantos
How The World's Largest Economies Regulate Data Privacy: Drawbacks, Benefits, & Proposed Solutions, Alexander J. Pantos
Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies
National data privacy regimes are quickly gaining traction and ubiquity around the globe. Moving forward, countries will face a range of difficult decisions surrounding how best to engage internationally in cross border data flow, particularly in the context of personal information (PI).
This article takes a bird's-eye view of the current state of data privacy regimes in the world's four highest GDP regions. In part, this article hopes to provide a succinct analysis of these data privacy regimes, with a focus on the balance they strike between granting individuals rights in their data and placing responsibilities on businesses that deal …
Unsafe At Any Campus: Don't Let Colleges Become The Next Cruise Ships, Nursing Homes, And Food Processing Plants, Peter H. Huang, Debra S. Austin Dr
Unsafe At Any Campus: Don't Let Colleges Become The Next Cruise Ships, Nursing Homes, And Food Processing Plants, Peter H. Huang, Debra S. Austin Dr
Indiana Law Journal
The decision to educate our students via in-person or online learning environments while COVID-19 is unrestrained is a false choice, when the clear path to achieve our chief objective safely, the education of our students, can be done online. Our decision-making should be guided by the overriding principle that people matter more than money. We recognize that lost tuition revenue if students delay or defer education is an institutional concern, but we posit that many students and parents would prefer a safer online alternative to riskier in-person options, especially as we get closer to fall, and American death tolls rise. …
The Specific Consumer Expectations Test For Product Defects, Clayton J. Masterman, W. Kip Viscusi
The Specific Consumer Expectations Test For Product Defects, Clayton J. Masterman, W. Kip Viscusi
Indiana Law Journal
In this Article, we propose that courts adopt an amended version of the consumer expectations test that we call the “specific consumer expectations test.” The specific consumer expectations test would apply to any product or product component for which consumers have clear, articulable ex ante expectations about the function of the product. Under the specific consumer expectations test, a defendant is liable if consumers expected such a product to reduce a particular risk, and the product in fact increased that risk. Similarly, if a product was intended to convey a particular benefit, but in fact harmed consumers along the same …
Consumer Bankruptcy Should Be Increasingly Irrelevant - Why Isn't It?, Pamela Foohey
Consumer Bankruptcy Should Be Increasingly Irrelevant - Why Isn't It?, Pamela Foohey
Articles by Maurer Faculty
There are important reasons why consumer bankruptcy remains relevant, even if consumers’ and bankruptcy’s interests have diverged. Some of these reasons suggest that it is more relevant than ever. The remainder of this response overviews the place consumer bankruptcy presently occupies in the United States. In doing so, I detail why consumer bankruptcy remains relevant in the face of a socio-economic structure and of laws that suggest that bankruptcy may not be a particularly useful place for struggling Americans to turn to for help. The response ends by calling for a bolder vision for consumer bankruptcy in light of the …
Consumer Bankruptcy Panel: Bringing Relevance Back To Consumer Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey, Daniel Keating, David A. Lander, Nathalie Martin, Sage M. Sigler
Consumer Bankruptcy Panel: Bringing Relevance Back To Consumer Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey, Daniel Keating, David A. Lander, Nathalie Martin, Sage M. Sigler
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
Protecting Consumers As Sellers, Jim Hawkins
Protecting Consumers As Sellers, Jim Hawkins
Indiana Law Journal
When the majority of modern contract and consumer protection laws were written in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, consumers almost always acted as buyers, and businesses almost always acted as sellers. As a result, these laws reflect a model of strong sellers and weak buyers. But paradigms are shifting. Advances in technology and constraints on consumers’ financial lives have pushed consumers into new roles. Consumers today often act as sellers—hawking gold to make ends meet, peddling durable goods on eBay, or offering services in the sharing economy to make a profit. Consumers and business models have changed, but the laws …
Anticompetitive Mergers In Labor Markets, Ioana Marinescu, Herbert J. Hovenkamp
Anticompetitive Mergers In Labor Markets, Ioana Marinescu, Herbert J. Hovenkamp
Indiana Law Journal
Mergers of competitors are conventionally challenged under the federal antitrust laws when they threaten to lessen competition in some product or service market in which the merging firms sell. In many of these cases the threat is that in concentrated markets—those with only a few sellers—the merger increases the likelihood of collusion or collusion-like behavior. The result will be that the post-merger firm will reduce the volume of sales in the affected market and prices will rise.
Mergers can also injure competition in markets in which the firms purchase, however. Although that principle is widely recognized, very few litigated cases …
Procompetitive Justifications In Antitrust Law, John M. Newman
Procompetitive Justifications In Antitrust Law, John M. Newman
Indiana Law Journal
The Rule of Reason, which has come to dominate modern antitrust law, allows defendants the opportunity to justify their conduct by demonstrating procompetitive effects. Seizing the opportunity, defendants have begun offering increasingly numerous and creative explanations for their behavior.
But which of these myriad justifications are valid? To leading jurists and scholars, this has remained an “open question,” even an “absolute mystery.” Examination of the relevant case law reveals multiple competing approaches and seemingly irreconcilable opinions. The ongoing lack of clarity in this area is inexcusable: procompetitive-justification analysis is vital to a properly functioning antitrust enterprise.
This Article provides answers …
A New Deal For Debtors: Providing Procedural Justice In Consumer Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey
A New Deal For Debtors: Providing Procedural Justice In Consumer Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Across the criminal and civil justice systems, research regarding procedural justice — feeling that one has a voice, is respected, and is before a neutral and even-handed adjudicator — shows that people’s positive perceptions of legal processes are fundamental to the legal system’s effectiveness and to the rule of law. About a million people file bankruptcy every year, making the consumer bankruptcy system the part of the federal court system with which people most often come into contact. Given the importance of bankruptcy to American families and the credit economy, there should exist a rich literature theorizing and investigating how …
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Structural Integrity And A Call For Adaptive And Incremental Agency Design Policy, Hannah Clendening
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Structural Integrity And A Call For Adaptive And Incremental Agency Design Policy, Hannah Clendening
Indiana Law Journal
INTRODUCTION
I. UNDERSTANDING AND RATIONALIZING COMPETING DESIGN OBJECTIVES
A. CONGRESSIONAL INTENT AND THE CFPB’S FORMATION
B. D.C. CIRCUIT’S REASONING IN PHH CORP. V. CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU
C. BASIC TENETS OF LEADING ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN THEORIES
D. ANOTHER LOOMING CONSIDERATION: AGENCY CAPTURE
II. A NEED FOR ADAPTIVE AND INCREMENTAL APPROACHES TO AGENCY DESIGN
CONCLUSION
Learning From Law Students: How Phds Might Seek Legal Remedy In The Face Of Widespread Unemployment, Emily Grothoff
Learning From Law Students: How Phds Might Seek Legal Remedy In The Face Of Widespread Unemployment, Emily Grothoff
Indiana Law Journal
This Note examines overproduction and underemployment problems facing the academic market and PhD graduates9 from a legal perspective. Part I will briefly review key legal takeaways from several distinctive cases that law school graduates brought against their almae matres regarding poor employability. Part II then describes the particularities of the “PhD problem” and how it compares and contrasts with the problem that J.D. holders recently faced. Finally, Part III will examine what legal remedies disenfranchised PhDs might pursue and whether such remedies could—and should—be sought in the courts.
Access To Consumer Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey
Access To Consumer Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey
Articles by Maurer Faculty
This essay examines the state of access to justice in the context of consumer bankruptcy from two vantage points: (1) how people decide that their money problems are legal problems addressable by filing bankruptcy; and (2) the barriers people face in using the consumer bankruptcy system. To shed new light on how people decide to use bankruptcy to address their financial troubles, I analyze a sample of narratives accompanying consumers' complaints about financial products and services submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I also chronicle the evolution of research regarding consumer bankruptcy’s “local legal culture,” systemic racial bias, and …
Regulating Fantasy Sports: A Practical Guide To State Gambling Laws, And A Proposed Framework For Future State Legislation, Marc Edelman
Regulating Fantasy Sports: A Practical Guide To State Gambling Laws, And A Proposed Framework For Future State Legislation, Marc Edelman
Indiana Law Journal
In recent months, the legal status of fantasy sports has undergone intense scrutiny, with the attorneys general of many states contending that certain formats of daily fantasy sports violate state gambling laws. In an effort to save the burgeoning daily fantasy sports industry, legislators in these states have proposed bills to affirmatively legalize and regulate daily fantasy sports. However, these bills often fail to adequately address the underlying consumer protection concerns pertaining to the industry.
This Article analyzes how U.S. states currently regulate the fantasy sports marketplace and proposes a framework for future state laws to effectively regulate both traditional …
Consumer Credit In America: Past, Present, And Future, Pamela Foohey, Jim Hawkins, Creola Johnson, Nathalie Martin
Consumer Credit In America: Past, Present, And Future, Pamela Foohey, Jim Hawkins, Creola Johnson, Nathalie Martin
Articles by Maurer Faculty
In September 2016, in conjunction with Law & Contemporary Problems at Duke University School of Law, we organized a symposium on Consumer Credit in America. We sought to assess the state of consumer credit in America — to review and examine its recent history, to consider arguments for and against regulation, and to discuss the potential for future innovation. This is the introduction to the volume of articles coming out of that symposium.
"No Money Down" Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter, Deborah Thorne
"No Money Down" Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter, Deborah Thorne
Articles by Maurer Faculty
This Article reports on a breakdown in access to justice in bankruptcy, a system from which one million Americans will seek help this year. A crucial decision for these consumers will be whether to file a chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy. Nearly every aspect of their bankruptcies — both the benefits and the burdens of debt relief — will be different in chapter 7 versus chapter 13. Almost all consumers will hire a bankruptcy attorney. Because they must pay their attorneys, many consumers will file chapter 13 to finance their access to the law, rather than because they prefer …
Calling On The Cfpb For Help: Telling Stories And Consumer Protection, Pamela Foohey
Calling On The Cfpb For Help: Telling Stories And Consumer Protection, Pamela Foohey
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Since it began operating in 2011, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has handled more than a million complaints regarding consumer financial product and services. Beginning in June 2015, the CFPB began publishing consumers’ narratives submitted with their complaints. This Article analyses a random sample of 5,000 of these narratives to assess how people engage with the complaint mechanism in light of the CFPB’s role in processing complaints. I find that people predominately use the complaint function for two distinct purposes: to express their anger and frustration about companies’ practices, or to express sadness and fear about how companies’ practices …
"I'M Just Some Guy": Positing And Leveraging Legal Subjects In Consumer Contracts And The Global Market, Tal Kastner
"I'M Just Some Guy": Positing And Leveraging Legal Subjects In Consumer Contracts And The Global Market, Tal Kastner
Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies
This article considers how legal frameworks shape the autonomous subject in a global economy. It makes salient the ways that different legal frameworks presume and enforce a particular subjectivity by positing certain behavioral expectations of various subjects. It does so through a focus on the underexplored rhetoric and implicit narratives of consumer contract law and transactional practice in the American and European regimes. By comparing the approach of the European Union to consumer contract, which posits the consumer as facing significant constraints on agency, to that in the United States, which elides functional limits of consumer knowledge and choice, this …
Toward An International Constitution Of Patient Rights, Alison Poklaski
Toward An International Constitution Of Patient Rights, Alison Poklaski
Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies
In the past decade, medical tourism-the travel of patients across borders to receive medical treatment-has undergone unprecedented growth, fueled by the globalization of health care and related industries. While medical tourism can benefit patients through increased access to treatment and cost-savings, medical travel also raises concerns about ensuring quality of care and legal redress in medical malpractice. Moreover, existing regulations fail to address these unprecedented issues. The multilateral adoption of an International Constitution of Patient Rights (ICPR) is necessary in order to more effectively preserve medical tourism's benefits and guard against its risks.
The Race To Safety: How Private Lawmaking And Voluntary-Standard Adoption Can Inspire A Global Regime That Strengthens And Harmonizes Product Safety Standards, Alexandra Muir
Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies
Today's economy is dominated by global actors. Over the past few decades, transnational corporations have increased in number and importance while domestic corporations have turned to outsourcing to cut costs and increase efficiency. The globalized economy has caused a breakdown in both physical and legal boundaries, as products in international commerce move from one jurisdiction to another, often adhering to safety standards of an entirely different jurisdiction than the one in which they are sold. This breakdown raises concerns about product safety and illustrates the importance of creating a consistent products liability regime for the international market. At the same …
Wiggle Room: Problems And Virtues Of The Inwood Standard, Rian C. Dawson
Wiggle Room: Problems And Virtues Of The Inwood Standard, Rian C. Dawson
Indiana Law Journal
This Note investigates the origins of Inwood that led to the slim opinion with wide influence. It argues that the very vagueness for which scholars and practitioners have decried Inwood is the case's greatest virtue: Inwood provides a flexible standard that has allowed the common law to evolve and address new business models. Part I discusses the origins of contributory infringement in intellectual property. Part II investigates the Inwood case and the climate of trademark law at the time Inwood was litigated. It also dissects the majority opinion and Justice White's concurrance. Part III examines the Inwood standard's evolution at …
Incentivizing The Protection Of Personally Identifying Consumer Data After The Home Depot Breach, Ryan F. Manion
Incentivizing The Protection Of Personally Identifying Consumer Data After The Home Depot Breach, Ryan F. Manion
Indiana Law Journal
The breach of payment card systems at the Home Depot in 2014 resulted in the theft of a wealth of information. This Note will examine the facts and legal consequences of the Home Depot breach under three separate frameworks. First, this Note will examine the Home Depot’s responsibilities arising under existing data breach notification statutes. Second, this Note examines the Home Depot’s potential liability if the recent bill introduced by Senator Leahy of Vermont proposing a federal data breach notification framework becomes law; ultimately, however, this Note finds that state notification statutes fail to adequately protect consumers, and Senator Leahy’s …
Reforming The Regulation Of Community, Tanya D. Marsh
Reforming The Regulation Of Community, Tanya D. Marsh
Indiana Law Journal
The regulatory framework for financial institutions in the United States imposes significant costs on community banks without providing benefits to consumers or the economy that justify those costs. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act builds on decades of “one-size-fits-all” regulation of financial institutions, an ill-conceived regulatory strategy that puts community banks at a competitive disadvantage as compared with their larger, more complex competitors. The imposition of regulatory burdens on community banks without attendant benefits ultimately harms both consumers and the economy by (1) forcing community banks to consolidate or go out of business, furthering the concentration of …
A Decade Of Registered And Unregistered Design Rights Decisions In The Uk: What Conclusions Can We Draw For The Future Of Both Types Of Rights?, Estelle Derclaye
A Decade Of Registered And Unregistered Design Rights Decisions In The Uk: What Conclusions Can We Draw For The Future Of Both Types Of Rights?, Estelle Derclaye
IP Theory
No abstract provided.
Ip Protection Of Fashion Design: To Be Or Not To Be, That Is The Question, Xinbo Li
Ip Protection Of Fashion Design: To Be Or Not To Be, That Is The Question, Xinbo Li
IP Theory
No abstract provided.
Reforming Retransmission Consent, Meg Burton
Reforming Retransmission Consent, Meg Burton
Federal Communications Law Journal
Under the retransmission consent regulations of the 1992 Cable Act, broadcasters and cable providers must negotiate with one another for permission to retransmit a broadcast signal over a cable system. While the majority of such negotiations are resolved amicably, there has been a growing trend of negotiations resulting in signal blackouts that harm consumers. In March 2010, cable providers filed a Petition for Rulemaking with the FCC arguing that the current regulations are outdated and asking that the FCC alter the regulations to curb harmful negotiation tactics employed by broadcasters. Broadcasters replied that the retransmission consent scheme is working as …
Behavioral Advertising: The Cryptic Hunter And Gatherer Of The Internet, Joanna Penn
Behavioral Advertising: The Cryptic Hunter And Gatherer Of The Internet, Joanna Penn
Federal Communications Law Journal
In an era where three out of every four Americans have Internet access, the term "surfing" has transformed from riding waves into running the risk of having private information gathered, stored, and disseminated-all without the user's knowledge or permission. This new found online practice, known as "behavioral advertising," is a veritable goldmine for those companies that know the game. But will the FTC or Congress soon make new rules concerning how to play? This Note begins by explaining the differences between behavioral targeting and retargeting and the techniques that the two methods use to collect data. This Note then explores …
Consumer Watchdog: The Fcc’S Proposed Rulemaking To Help Consumers Avoid Bill Shock, Cameron Robinson
Consumer Watchdog: The Fcc’S Proposed Rulemaking To Help Consumers Avoid Bill Shock, Cameron Robinson
Federal Communications Law Journal
This Note discusses the proposed rulemaking by the FCC in order to empower consumers against "bill shock." Bill shock is described as what a consumer experiences when he or she receives a bill for his or her cellular phone that is much higher than expected, usually on account of roaming charges. This Note will argue in favor of rulemaking by the FCC and explain how the consumer will be empowered against the confusion of the current system.