Law Commons^™

Sneak In Contracts, Shmuel I. Becher, Uri Benoliel

Georgia Law Review

Consumer contracts are a pervasive legal tool that govern
many of our daily activities. Yet, consumer contracts are
routinely modified by businesses after customers accept them.
Common modifications include, for example, a change in fees,
alteration of a dispute resolution clause, or revision to the firm’s
privacy policy. In fact, unilateral modifications can affect
virtually every aspect of a contract.
While the literature widely discusses the problem of ex ante
consent to consumer contracts, it does not adequately address
the problem of ex post consent to unilateral modifications. But
the practice of unilateral changes to consumer form contracts
comes with …

Why The Vppa And Coppa Are Outdated: How Netflix, Youtube, And Disney+ Can Monitor Your Family At No Real Cost, Anna O’Donnell

Georgia Law Review

Video-streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, and Disney+
dominate the current media landscape. This Note explains why
current laws likely cannot effectively prevent these streaming
services from collecting and sharing users’ private information.
The Video Privacy Protection Act (the VPPA) contains language
that has baffled courts when applying its text to streaming
services, resulting in multiple circuit splits. The Children’s
Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has a clearer
application to streaming services, yet its enforcement has
resulted in small settlements with companies that have been
charged with collecting children’s private information. Both the
VPPA and COPPA need to be updated to …

Puppies, Puppies, Puppies: Why Georgia Should “Adopt” A Progressive Puppy Lemon Law And Engage In Much-Needed Statutory Reform, Jonathan T. Tortorici

Georgia Law Review

The Georgia Animal Protection Act—a set of animal
protection laws that has remained unchanged for nearly two
decades—was passed to promote animal welfare across the
state. Although the Act was progressive at its inception, its
failure to curb the atrocious conditions created by puppy mills
has become increasingly apparent, resulting in serious
consequences for both consumers and dogs. Georgia must
amend its animal protection laws to shift the costs of puppy
mills to where they belong: on pet sellers. Among other
innovative solutions to this problem, many states have enacted
“puppy lemon laws” that generally provide pet purchasers with
the …

Amazon’S Invincibility: The Effect Of Defective Third-Party Vendors’ Products On Amazon, Amy E. Shehan

Georgia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fixing Ever-Ready: Repairing And Standardizing The Traditional Survey Measure Of Consumer Confusion, Eric D. Derosia

Georgia Law Review

In trademark infringement litigation, courts often rely
on consumer surveys that use the “Ever-Ready” method
to measure consumer confusion. Courts are
understandably careful to scrutinize consumer surveys
for ways in which their methodology might have biased
their results toward the outcome desired by their
proponents. This Article strengthens and improves such
examinations by empirically testing and improving the
Ever-Ready method itself.
The findings of four new empirical studies reported in
this Article indicate the faith placed by the courts in the
Ever-Ready method is somewhat misplaced. Seemingly
subtle variations in the wording of the Ever-Ready
questions have a consistent and …

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Of Online Reviews: The Trouble With Trolls And A Role For Contract Law After The Consumer Review Fairness Act, Wayne R. Barnes

Georgia Law Review

The advent of the internet has brought innumerable
innovations to our lives. Among the innovations is the
meteoric rise in the volume of e-commerce conducted on
the internet. Correspondingly, consumer-posted
information about merchants, goods, and services has
also become a rich source of information for consumers
researching a purchase online. This information takes
many forms, but a major category is the narrative review
describing the purchase and experience. Such reviews
are posted on websites such as Yelp, Amazon, and
TripAdvisor, on apps, and on social media such as
Facebook and Twitter. The amount and volume of
reviews has exploded in …

Assessing The Efficacy Of The Cfpb's Regulation Of Student Loan Companies, Ian E. Calhoun

Georgia Law Review

Outstanding student loan balances totaled over
$1.38 trillion as of December 31, 2017 with 11% of
student loan debt over ninety days delinquent or in
default. Due to half of all student loans being in
deferment, grace periods, or forbearance, the actual
delinquency rate is likely double the above figure.
Delinquent student borrowers enrolled in some form of
college education expect to improve their financial
position. Instead, many find themselves unable to break
even under the weight of large amounts of debt with
confusing, and often misleading, repayment plans.
Many blame the lending practices of student loan
providers and servicers …

Personal Property Servitudes On The Internet Of Things, Christina Mulligan

Georgia Law Review

Small appliances such as thermostats, watches, jewelry, and eyewear are now being made available with networking capability. These networked objects make up the growing Internet of Things-pieces of personal property that run software and connect to the global Internet. These products are typically governed by terms of service or end-user license agreements that create restrictions on how products can be used or transferred- restrictions which would be unenforceable if the inside of the product consisted of gears rather than processing chips. This Article explores the question of when use and transfer restrictions should be enforceable on networked appliances and other …

When Peace Is Not The Goal Of A Class Action Settlement, D. Theodore Rave

Georgia Law Review

On the conventional account, a class action settlement is a vehicle through which the defendant buys peace from the class action lawyer. That single transaction will preclude future litigation by all class members. But peace, at least through preclusion, may not always be the goal. In a recent Fair Credit Reporting Action (FCRA) case, In re Trans Union Privacy Litigation, the parties agreed to a class action settlement that did not preclude individual claims. The 190 million class members surrendered only their rights to participate in a future class or aggregate action; they remained free to march right back into …

Cybersecurity On My Mind: Protecting Georgia Consumers From Data Breaches, Maggie L. Mcmichael

Georgia Law Review

In a world where vast amounts of personal information
are obtained and stored by countless organizations and
businesses in the public and private sector, data breaches,

due to negligence or nefarious hacking, are a far too
common occurrence. The results of a data breach can be
serious and widespread, from public humiliation to
identity theft and national security crises. In an effort to
protect consumers from the potentially devastating effects
of data breaches, the Federal Trade Commission has
begun to take enforcement action against businesses whose
data security practices are alleged to be unfair and
deceptive. Theoretically, states can take …