Law Commons^™

Recent Developments Concerning The Purchase Of Consumer Debt; Defining Potential Problems And Proposals For Suggested Solutions, Gerald A. Williams

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

No abstract provided.

“I’Ll Know It When I See It”: Defending The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’S Approach Of Interpreting The Scope Of Unfair, Deceptive, Or Abusive Acts Or Practices (“Udapp”) Through Enforcement Actions, Stephen J. Canzona

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

Platform Advocacy And The Threat To Deliberative Democracy, Abbey Stemler

Maryland Law Review

Businesses have long tried to influence political outcomes, but today, there is a new and potent form of corporate political power—Platform Advocacy. Internet-based platforms, such as Facebook, Google, and Uber, mobilize their user bases through direct solicitation of support and the more troubling exploitation of irrational behavior. Platform Advocacy helps platforms push policy agendas that create favorable legal environments for themselves, thereby strengthening their own dominance in the marketplace. This new form of advocacy will have radical effects on deliberative democracy.

In the age of constant digital noise and uncertainty, it is more important than ever to detect and analyze …

Five Oft-Repeated Questions About China's Recent Rise As A Patent Power, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

Policymakers, industries, commentators and the media have widely criticized China for its failure to adequately protect intellectual property rights. In recent years, however, the discourse on intellectual property developments in China has slowly begun to change. Such a change is the most notable in the patent area. Today, China is already among the top five countries filing patent applications through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). In 2011, the number of PCT applications increased by 33.4% to 16,406, earning China the fourth spot, behind only the United States, Japan and Germany. Among all the applicants, ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies had …

A Fair Use To Remember: Restoring Application Of The Fair Use Doctrine To Strengthen Copyright Law And Disarm Abusive Copyright Litigation, Lauren Gorab

Fordham Law Review

The primary goal of copyright law is to benefit the public. By rewarding authors with exclusive rights, such as the power to enforce copyright infringement, copyright protection is the means through which copyright law accomplishes this goal. Another way that copyright law pursues its goal is through the fair use doctrine—an invaluable utilitarian limit on copyright protection. However, fair use is, among other things, vague. The current application of fair use as an affirmative defense magnifies the doctrine’s problems and makes copyright law hospitable to abusive copyright litigation. Current proposals in this area of reform target either fair use or …

Revising The Vertical Merger Guidelines (Ftc Hearings), Steven C. Salop

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This slide deck was the author’s presentation at the FTC Hearings on Vertical Mergers (November 1, 2018). The deck sets out a summary of the author’s economic analysis and proposed revisions to the U.S. Vertical Merger Guidelines.

Illinois Rejects Market Share Liability: A Policy Based Analysis Of Smith V. Eli Lilly & Co., Kurt M. Zitzer, Marc D. Ginsberg

Marc D. Ginsberg

No abstract provided.

Trademark's Judicial De-Evolution: Why Courts Get Trademark Cases Wrong Repeatedly, Glynn Lunney

Glynn Lunney

Trademark law has de-evolved. It has transitioned from an efficient mechanism for ensuring competition into an inefficient regime for capturing economic rents. In this Article, I focus on the role that party self-interest has played in biasing the evolution of trademark law. This self-interest tends to lead parties to (1) challenge efficient legal rules and seek to replace them with inefficient, anticompetitive rules, and (2) accede to inefficient, anticompetitive rules once they are in place. Almost by definition, when a rule of trademark law promotes competition, it reduces the market surplus or rents that current producers capture. As a result, …

Economic Rationality And Ethical Values In Design-Defect Analysis: The Trolley Problem And Autonomous Vehicles, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The trolley problem is a well-known thought experiment in moral philosophy, used to explore issues such as rights, deontological reasons, and intention and the doctrine of double effect. Recently it has featured prominently in popular discussions of decision making by autonomous vehicle systems. For example, a Mercedes-Benz executive stated that, if faced with the choice between running over a child that had unexpectedly darted into the road and steering suddenly, causing a rollover accident that would kill the driver, an automated Mercedes would opt to kill the child. This paper considers not the ethical issues raised by such dilemmas, but …

The Pharma Barons: Corporate Law's Dangerous New Race To The Bottom In The Pharmaceutical Industry, Eugene Mccarthy

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

In this Article, I argue that drug companies have created a highly profitable but dangerous business model by employing the same legal tactics as the nineteenth-century “robber barons,” the group of financiers who orchestrated corporate law’s infamous race to the bottom. Like these historical financiers, drug company executives have captured the legal apparatus and regulatory bodies that oversee them. In so doing, they have transformed the law from a system of governance into a set of enabling doctrines. The pharmaceutical industry has turned legislation intended to protect the public into a legal justification for marketing ineffective and unsafe prescription drugs. …

What's The Big Hurry? The Urgency Of Data Breach Notification, Ellen Cornelius

Homeland Security Publications

No abstract provided.

The Content Of Consumer Law Classes Iii, Jeff Sovern

Faculty Publications

This paper reports on a 2018 survey of law professors teaching consumer protection, and follows up on similar 2010 and 2008 surveys, which appeared in Jeff Sovern, The Content of Consumer Law Classes II, 14 J. Consumer & Commercial L. 16 (No. 1 2010), at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1657624 and Jeff Sovern, The Content of Consumer Law Classes, 12 J. Consumer & Commercial L. 48 (No. 1 2008), at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1139894, respectively. As reported in previous surveys, professors teaching consumer law report considerable variation in coverage. Professors want to cover relatively current subjects within their courses, such as FinTech, credit invisibles, and mortgage …

The California Consumer Privacy Act Of 2018: Are Your Interests At Stake?, Katie Christensen

GGU Law Review Blog

California residents and those who do business in California are advised to stay abreast of the California Consumer Privacy Act, as there may be major textual revisions – or Federal pre-emption – before the act goes into effect on January 1, 2020.

A Fixed Game: The Frustrations Of Ticket Scalping And The Realities Of Its Solutions, Dylan C. Porcello

Brooklyn Law Review

Due to the rapid growth of the secondary resale market, purchasing tickets at their face-value price is becoming a fleeting expectation. While ticket scalping has existed quite possibly as long as tickets themselves have, innovations in invasive purchasing practices are leading to unprecedented profit margins for ticket scalpers and a greater distance between consumers and the original ticket sale. With ticket scalpers employing advanced ticket purchasing software, referred to as bots, consumers are left with no option but to surrender to steep resale prices, which often have no ceiling. Though ticket scalping regulation has developed, these legislative efforts have been …

The Equifax Data Breach And The Resulting Legal Recourse, Caitlin Kenny

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

What happens when one’s sensitive information falls into the wrong hands? With the twenty-first century’s advancement of technology comes the increasing problem of data breaches wherein sensitive information is exposed. On September 7, 2017, Equifax, one of three major United States credit reporting agencies announced one of the largest data breaches in the history of the United States. The data breach affected approximately 145 million consumers and subsequently a wave of consumer class actions followed. This Note clarifies why class action lawsuits and arbitration are not viable legal remedies for massive data breaches where entities like credit reporting agencies are …

The Devious Debtor: 11 U.S.C. § 523(A)(2)(B) And The Need For A More Equitable Outcome, Torie Levine

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Section 523(a)(2)(A) of the Bankruptcy Code prohibits debtors from discharging debts for money, property, services, or credit obtained by false pretenses, a false representation, or actual fraud other than a statement respecting the debtor’s financial condition. Under § 523(a)(2)(B), if those debts are obtained by a statement respecting the debtor’s financial condition, then the statement must be in writing for the debt to be discharged. A conflict among the circuit courts arose as to whether a statement about a single asset can be a statement respecting the debtor’s financial condition. The majority of the courts applied a narrow interpretation to …

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 …

Cyber Babel: Finding The Lingua Franca In Cybersecurity Regulation, William Pierotti

Fordham Law Review

Cybersecurity regulations have proliferated over the past few years as the significance of the threat has drawn more attention. With breaches making headlines, the public and their representatives are imposing requirements on those that hold sensitive data with renewed vigor. As high-value targets that hold large amounts of sensitive data, financial institutions are among the most heavily regulated. Regulations are necessary. However, regulations also come with costs that impact both large and small companies, their customers, and local, national, and international economies. As the regulations have proliferated so have those costs. The regulations will inevitably and justifiably diverge where different …

In Consumer Protection We Trust? Re-Thinking The Legal Framework For Country Of Origin Cases, Shmuel I. Becher, Jessica C. Lai

San Diego Law Review

Markets are becoming more complicated in an ever faster changing world. New findings pertaining to human behavior and consumer markets constantly challenge traditional legal and policy assumptions. Social science offers a myriad of insights into the ways trust, identity, ideology, and preferences interact and impact one another. Against this background, the need to advance a nuanced legal framework is increasingly vital.

Consumer law policy requires an interdisciplinary and holistic approach. Recent scholarship has acknowledged this need, proposing novel ways to enrich the academic discourse and develop consumer law policy. Along these lines, a growing body of literature examines how notions …

Moving Beyond The Wto: A Proposal To Adjudicate Gmo Disputes In An International Environmental Court, Marguerite A. Hutchinson

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article begins with a brief summary of the scientific basis of creating GMOs and its historic precursors. The second section provides an overview of risks to humans and the environment. The third part of this Article analyzes the arguments put forward by both the United States and the E.U., which have defined the conflict between blocs of countries pushing GMOs abroad and those who persistently reject them. The fourth section evaluates the respective regulatory schemes imposed on GMOs by the United States and Europe, domestically and by international treaty. The success of these systems is evaluated in the fifth …

The End Of Bargaining In The Digital Age, Saul Levmore, Frank Fagan

Cornell Law Review

Bargaining is a fundamental characteristic of many markets and legal disputes, but it can be a source of inefficiency. Buyers often waste resources by searching for information about past prices, where a seller already holds that information. A second—and novel—source of social loss is that some buyers will avoid otherwise beneficial bargains and sellers with negotiable prices because they recognize the seller’s advantage in any haggling match. They might also hide information that reveals their willingness to pay. This Article argues for mandated disclosure of past prices, and occasionally settlements, where these have been negotiable. The rule requires uniform or …

Shadowing Lenders And Consumers: The Rise, Regulation, And Risks Of Non-Banks, Shelby D. Green

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Since the financial crisis of 2008, “shadow banking” or financial transactions by “non-banks,” has skyrocketed. Non-banks are not depositary institutions and as such, they roam free, largely outside the purview of the bank regulators. They occupy all parts of the credit markets, from mortgage loan origination to payday lenders. Untethered, they operate without government guarantees, such as deposit insurance and have no access to emergency government lending facilities, such as the Federal Reserve's discount window.

There are both positives and negatives in the rise of non-banks. On the positive side is market liquidity and greater diversity of funding sources for …

Update On Antitrust And Pay-For-Delay: Evaluating “No Authorized Generic” And “Exclusive License” Provisions In Hatch-Waxman Settlements, Saami Zain

San Diego Law Review

In Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis, the United States Supreme Court held that a patent litigation settlement where a branded drug company pays a generic drug company to end the litigation and delay launching its generic may violate the antitrust laws. Although the decision ended years of controversy over whether such settlements were subject to antitrust scrutiny, many issues remain unresolved concerning the lawfulness of these settlements. In particular, courts have struggled in assessing the legality of patent settlements between branded and generic drug manufacturers involving non-cash compensation or benefits. This article discusses one type of non-cash compensation that is …

Looking For Venue In The Patently Right Places: A Parallel Study Of The Venue Act And Venue In Anda Litigation, Mengke Xing

San Diego Law Review

Like any other type of litigation, venue is often an important strategic decision for patent infringement litigants. Under the traditional nation-wide venue rule, a patent owner was able to sue a corporate defendant almost in every district in the country, giving rise to abusive forum shopping and the popularity of the Eastern District of Texas. Last year, the Supreme Court in TC Heartland dramatically changed the legal framework of venue in patent litigation, while leaving some issues unaddressed. After a discussion of the evolvement of venue laws and the significance of TC Heartland, this Comment focuses on the Venue Equity …

Health Care Referrals Out Of The Shadows: Recognizing The Looming Threat Of The Texas Patient Solicitation Act And Other Illegal Remuneration Statutes, Trenton Brown

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Trademark's Judicial De-Evolution: Why Courts Get Trademark Cases Wrong Repeatedly, Glynn Lunney

Faculty Scholarship

Trademark law has de-evolved. It has transitioned from an efficient mechanism for ensuring competition into an inefficient regime for capturing economic rents. In this Article, I focus on the role that party self-interest has played in biasing the evolution of trademark law. This self-interest tends to lead parties to (1) challenge efficient legal rules and seek to replace them with inefficient, anticompetitive rules, and (2) accede to inefficient, anticompetitive rules once they are in place. Almost by definition, when a rule of trademark law promotes competition, it reduces the market surplus or rents that current producers capture. As a result, …

The Salience Theory Of Consumer Financial Regulation, Natasha Sarin

All Faculty Scholarship

Prior to the financial crisis, banks’ fee income was their fastest-growing source of revenue. This revenue was often generated through nefarious bank practices (e.g., ordering overdraft transactions for maximal fees). The crisis focused popular attention on the extent to which current regulatory tools failed consumers in these markets, and policymakers responded: A new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was tasked with monitoring consumer finance products, and some of the earliest post-crisis financial reforms sought to lower consumer costs. This Article is the first to empirically evaluate the success of the consumer finance reform agenda by considering three recent price regulations: a …

Holding Ridesharing Companies Accountable In Texas, Martha Alejandra Salas

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Charging The Poor: Criminal Justice Debt & Modern-Day Debtors' Prisons, Neil L. Sobol

Neil L Sobol

Debtors’ prisons should no longer exist. While imprisonment for debt was common in colonial times in the United States, subsequent constitutional provisions, legislation, and court rulings all called for the abolition of incarcerating individuals to collect debt. Despite these prohibitions, individuals who are unable to pay debts are now regularly incarcerated, and the vast majority of them are indigent. In 2015, at least ten lawsuits were filed against municipalities for incarcerating individuals in modern-day debtors’ prisons. Criminal justice debt is the primary source for this imprisonment.

Criminal justice debt includes fines, restitution charges, court costs, and fees. Monetary charges exist …

Forum Selection Clauses And Consumer Contracts In Canada, Tanya Monestier

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.