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Articles 31 - 60 of 63

Full-Text Articles in Consumer Protection Law

Cities As A Source Of Consumers’ Financial Empowerment, Susan Block-Lieb Jan 2018

Cities As A Source Of Consumers’ Financial Empowerment, Susan Block-Lieb

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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Regulating A Revolution: From Regulatory Sandboxes To Smart Regulation, Dirk A. Zetzsche, Ross P. Buckley, Janos N. Barberis, Douglas W. Arner Jan 2017

Regulating A Revolution: From Regulatory Sandboxes To Smart Regulation, Dirk A. Zetzsche, Ross P. Buckley, Janos N. Barberis, Douglas W. Arner

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Prior to the global financial crisis, financial innovation was viewed very positively, resulting in a laissez-faire, deregulatory approach to financial regulation. Since the crisis the regulatory pendulum has swung to the other extreme. Post-crisis regulation, plus rapid technological change, have spurred the development of financial technology (FinTech). FinTech firms and data-driven financial service providers profoundly challenge the current regulatory paradigm. Financial regulators increasingly seek to balance the traditional regulatory objectives of financial stability and consumer protection with promoting growth and innovation. The resulting regulatory innovations include RegTech, regulatory sandboxes, and special charters. This Article analyzes possible new regulatory approaches, ranging …

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The Contours Of The Parallel Claim Exception: The Supreme Court's Opportunity To Define The Ill-Defined, Jarret Sena Apr 2016

The Contours Of The Parallel Claim Exception: The Supreme Court's Opportunity To Define The Ill-Defined, Jarret Sena

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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Recalling The Lawyers: The Nhtsa, Gm, And The Chevrolet Cobalt, Bernard W. Bell Apr 2016

Recalling The Lawyers: The Nhtsa, Gm, And The Chevrolet Cobalt, Bernard W. Bell

Fordham Law Review

This Article summarizes product safety and vehicle safety law and recounts General Motors Company’s (GM) response to the Cobalt ignition switch defect, paying particular attention to the actions of GM’s in-house and outside counsel. This Article then considers the legality and prudence of a regulatory agency’s imposition of gatekeeping responsibilities on such counsel.

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Expanding Local Enforcement Of State And Federal Consumer Protection Laws, Kathleen S. Morris Mar 2016

Expanding Local Enforcement Of State And Federal Consumer Protection Laws, Kathleen S. Morris

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article calls on Congress and the state legislatures to grant large cities and counties standing to enforce the Federal Trade Commission Act (the FTC Act) and its state statutory counterparts (or little Acts). The FTC Act, a federal law, prohibits businesses from engaging in any “unlawful,” “unfair,” or “deceptive” acts or practices, and the little Acts apply similarly broad prohibitions in all fifty states. This fifty-one-statute consumer protection regime—which has been the law of the land for several decades—carries enormous promise to halt a wide range of unlawful and harmful corporate practices in their earliest stages. Unfortunately, that promise …

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Fair Warning?: The First Amendment, Compelled Commercial Disclosures, And Cigarette Warning Labels, Timothy J. Straub Mar 2016

Fair Warning?: The First Amendment, Compelled Commercial Disclosures, And Cigarette Warning Labels, Timothy J. Straub

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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A Sum Uncertain: Preserving Due Process And Preventing Default Judgments In Consumer Debt Buyer Lawsuits In New York, Conor P. Duffy Mar 2016

A Sum Uncertain: Preserving Due Process And Preventing Default Judgments In Consumer Debt Buyer Lawsuits In New York, Conor P. Duffy

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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Quality Collusion: News, If It Ain’T Broke, Why Fix It?, Mark Mcmillan Mar 2016

Quality Collusion: News, If It Ain’T Broke, Why Fix It?, Mark Mcmillan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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Lift Not The Painted Veil! To Whom Are Directors’ Duties Really Owed?, Martin Gelter, Geneviève Helleringer Jan 2015

Lift Not The Painted Veil! To Whom Are Directors’ Duties Really Owed?, Martin Gelter, Geneviève Helleringer

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, we identify a fundamental contradiction in the law of fiduciary duty of corporate directors across jurisdictions, namely the tension between the uniformity of directors’ duties and the heterogeneity of directors themselves. American scholars tend to think of the board as a group of individuals elected by shareholders, even though it is widely acknowledged (and criticized) that the board is often a largely self-perpetuating body whose inside members dominate the selection of their future colleagues and eventual successors. However, this characterization is far from universally true internationally, and it tends to be increasingly less true even in the …

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Contra Proferentem And The Role Of The Jury In Contract Interpretation, Ethan J. Leib, Steve Thel Jan 2015

Contra Proferentem And The Role Of The Jury In Contract Interpretation, Ethan J. Leib, Steve Thel

Faculty Scholarship

Revisiting Bill Whitford’s work on the role of the jury in contract interpretation and his work on consumer form contracting inspired us to take a careful look at a doctrine of contract interpretation that is usually thought to help consumers in interpretive battles with those who draft their contracts unilaterally. But we found that contra proferentem -- the canon that requires construing or interpreting a contract against the drafter when ambiguities arise -- is more confusing than we expected. What we have done here is lay out some of the complexities of the doctrine, focusing on its broader application outside …

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Clearinghouses As Liquidity Partitioning, Richard Squire Jan 2014

Clearinghouses As Liquidity Partitioning, Richard Squire

Faculty Scholarship

To reduce the risk of another financial crisis, the Dodd-Frank Act requires that trading in certain derivatives be backed by clearinghouses. Critics mount two main objections: a clearinghouse shifts risk instead of reducing it; and a clearinghouse could fail, requiring a bailout. This Article’s observation that clearinghouses engage in liquidity partitioning answers both. Liquidity partitioning means that when one of its member firms becomes bankrupt, a clearinghouse keeps a portion of the firm’s most liquid assets, and a matching portion of its short-term debt, out of the bankruptcy estate. The clearinghouse then applies the first toward immediate repayment of the …

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Breaking Up Payday: Anti-Agglomeration Zoning & Consumer Welfare, Sheila R. Foster Jan 2014

Breaking Up Payday: Anti-Agglomeration Zoning & Consumer Welfare, Sheila R. Foster

Faculty Scholarship

In the last decade, dozens of local governments have enacted zoning ordinances designed to limit the concentration of payday lenders and other alternative financial services providers (AFSPs), such as check-cashing businesses and auto title loan shops, in their communities. The main impetus for these ordinances is to shield economically vulnerable residents from the industry’s lending practices in the absence of sufficiently aggressive federal and state consumer protection regulation. This Essay casts considerable doubt on whether zoning is the appropriate regulatory tool to achieve the consumer protection and welfare goals animating these ordinances. The author’s analysis of the aftermath of payday …

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Whose Trojan Horse? The Dynamics Of Resistance Against Ifrs, Martin Gelter, Zehra Kavame Eroglu Jan 2014

Whose Trojan Horse? The Dynamics Of Resistance Against Ifrs, Martin Gelter, Zehra Kavame Eroglu

Faculty Scholarship

The introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”) has been debated in the United States since at least the accounting scandals of the early 2000s. While publicly traded firms around the world are increasingly switching to IFRS, often because they are required to do so by law or by their stock exchange, the Securities Exchange Com-mission (“SEC”) seems to have become more reticent in recent years. Only foreign issuers have been permitted to use IFRS in the United States since 2007. By contrast, the EU has mandated the use of IFRS in the consolidated financial statements of publicly traded firms …

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Burning Down The House Or Simply Rolling The Dice: A Comment On Section 621 Of The Dodd-Frank Act And Recommendation For Its Implementation, Joshua R. Rosenthal Jan 2012

Burning Down The House Or Simply Rolling The Dice: A Comment On Section 621 Of The Dodd-Frank Act And Recommendation For Its Implementation, Joshua R. Rosenthal

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Section 621 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act modifies the Securities Act of 1933 to prohibit the underwriter, placement agent, initial purchaser, or sponsor, or any affiliate or subsidiary of any such entity of an asset-backed financial product from betting against that very product for one year after the product’s initial sale. The rule prohibits anyone who structures or sells an asset-backed security or a product composed of asset-backed securities from going short, in the specified timeframe, on what they have sold, and labels such transactions as presenting material conflicts of interest. This Comment discusses traces …

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Reforming Regulation In The Markets For Home Loans, Susan Block-Lieb, Edward J. Janger Jan 2011

Reforming Regulation In The Markets For Home Loans, Susan Block-Lieb, Edward J. Janger

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article explores the content and institutional context for recently revised regulation of the markets for residential mortgages. The authors compare and contrast the House and Senate bills relating to the market for home loans proposed and/or passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and examines how the Dodd-Frank Act reconciled the various proposals. The article also focuses on the creation and role of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Lastly, this article examines the portion of the Dodd-Frank Act intended to regulate predatory mortgages.

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A Simple Approach To Preventing The Next Housing Crisis-Why We Need One, What One Would Look Like, And Why Dodd-Frank Isn't It, David A. Dana Jan 2011

A Simple Approach To Preventing The Next Housing Crisis-Why We Need One, What One Would Look Like, And Why Dodd-Frank Isn't It, David A. Dana

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article considers the adequacy of The Dodd-Frank Act in terms of its potential ability to prevent another crisis in the housing market. The author argues that Dodd-Frank, even if implemented broadly, will not address the key problem of excess complexity in the housing and financial markets. The author then suggests additional reform focusing on simplicity, exemplified by the existing regulatory framework in Denmark. Lastly, the author addresses the current political economy, which is blamed for making the passage of effective regulation too difficult.

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Credit Card Fraud: A New Perspective On Tackling An Intransigent Problem, Lydia Segal, Benjamin Ngugi, Jafar Mana Jan 2011

Credit Card Fraud: A New Perspective On Tackling An Intransigent Problem, Lydia Segal, Benjamin Ngugi, Jafar Mana

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

This article offers a new perspective on battling credit card fraud. It departs from a focus on post factum liability, which characterizes most legal scholarship and federal legislation on credit card fraud and applies corrective mechanisms only after the damage is done. Instead, this article focuses on preempting credit card fraud by tackling the root causes of the problem: the built-in incentives that keep the credit card industry from fighting fraud on a system-wide basis. This article examines how credit card companies and banks have created a self-interested infrastructure that insulates them from the liabilities and costs of credit card …

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Standardization Of Standard-Form Contracts: Competition And Contract Implications, Mark R. Patterson Jan 2010

Standardization Of Standard-Form Contracts: Competition And Contract Implications, Mark R. Patterson

Faculty Scholarship

Standard-form contracts are a common feature of commercial relationships because they offer the advantage of lower transaction costs. This advantage of standard contracts is increased when there is a second layer of standardization under which multiple firms agree on a standard contract. Trade associations and similar entities often effect standardization of this kind through collective agreement on a standard contract, sometimes under the aegis of state actors. Multifirm contract standardization can provide not only the usual transaction-cost advantages of standard-form contracts, but also increased competition among firms, because a standard contract makes comparison among firms’ offerings easier. But standardization among …

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Over-Indebtedness, The Subprime Mortgage Crisis, And The Effect On U.S. Cities, A. Mechele Dickerson Jan 2009

Over-Indebtedness, The Subprime Mortgage Crisis, And The Effect On U.S. Cities, A. Mechele Dickerson

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article discusses the rise of consumer debt in the United States, and argues that relaxed lending standards resulting in more people buying unaffordable homes. The current financial crisis and its effects on homeowners are examined, as well as policy responses to the crisis. The author suggests that instead of waiting for federal bailouts, localities take proactive steps to prevent the crisis from destroying their cities. Finally, the article stresses that the crisis threatens to leave urban areas with a significant number of abandoned homes and that an increase in distressed neighborhoods may reverse years of urban renewal projects.

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Reducing Home Mortgage Foreclosures In A Predatory Lending Environment: A Case Study Of Mid-Sized City In Central New York, Sandra Phillips Jan 2009

Reducing Home Mortgage Foreclosures In A Predatory Lending Environment: A Case Study Of Mid-Sized City In Central New York, Sandra Phillips

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article discusses the growing problem of predatory lending, particularly in low-income, inner city neighborhoods, with a case study of communities in Syracuse, New York. The author documents mortgage lending activities and foreclosure patterns in central New York and argues for continued education throughout the home-buying process. A program that reduced foreclosures in low-income urban neighborhoods is discussed. The article also identifies red flags for those involved in the eradication of predatory lending to be altered to, and examines recent federal legislation to strengthen mortgage lending guidelines and reduce foreclosures. The author concludes that Congress should support foreclosure-prevention education initiatives.

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Rewriting Contracts, Wholesale: Data On Voluntary Mortgage Modifications From 2007 And 2008 Remittance Reports, Alan M. White Jan 2009

Rewriting Contracts, Wholesale: Data On Voluntary Mortgage Modifications From 2007 And 2008 Remittance Reports, Alan M. White

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article examines voluntary efforts by mortgage servicers to resolve the mortgage debt overhang by renegotiating mortgage terms with borrowers. Data from national reports on mortgage modifications, as well as from monthly remittance reports by mortgage servicers to their investors is analyzed. The author provides background of the voluntary plan to resolve the subprime mortgage crisis and previous reports on voluntary loan modifications, and presents data on loan modification outcomes. The author concludes that the voluntary mortgage renegotiation plan, while significantly reducing hardship for individual homeowners temporarily, does little to get at the underlying problem of debt overhang. Furthermore, that …

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Antitrust And The Costs Of Standard-Setting: A Commentary On Teece & (And) Sherry Symposium: The Interface Between Intellectual Property Law And Antitrust Law: Commentary, Mark R. Patterson Jan 2002

Antitrust And The Costs Of Standard-Setting: A Commentary On Teece & (And) Sherry Symposium: The Interface Between Intellectual Property Law And Antitrust Law: Commentary, Mark R. Patterson

Faculty Scholarship

The creation of an industry standard is a process that has much in common with the creation of a patented invention. Indeed, if standards are not patentable, it is only because of certain doctrinal peculiarities of patent law. It is therefore important to preserve the incentives for organizations to incur the costs of standard-setting activity, so that society may gain the benefits of the resulting standards. The law can preserve those incentives by treating the contributions of industry standards as distinct from those of inventions that are incorporated in them. More specifically, antitrust law should ensure that the patentees of …

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When Is Property Intellectual: The Leveraging Problem Essays, Mark R. Patterson Jan 1999

When Is Property Intellectual: The Leveraging Problem Essays, Mark R. Patterson

Faculty Scholarship

Patents and copyrights protect inventions and expression; they do not protect products. This distinction, I argue in this essay, is a key to the antitrust problem of the "leveraging" of intellectual property. In a typical leveraging case, the manufacturer of a durable good, like a copier or computer, refuses to sell replacement parts for its equipment unless the purchaser also hires the manufacturer to service the equipment. Such a practice can be illegal under antitrust law, but when the leveraging products-in this example, replacement parts-are protected by patent or copyright, the manufacturer will often claim that the leveraging is a …

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Is Unlimited Liability Really Unattainable: Of Long Arms And Short Sales, Mark R. Patterson Jan 1995

Is Unlimited Liability Really Unattainable: Of Long Arms And Short Sales, Mark R. Patterson

Faculty Scholarship

Unlimited shareholder liability would radically change the way we look at corporations. In an unlimited-liability world, one part at least of the veil between corporation and shareholder would no longer exist. As a result, the relationship between corporation and shareholder would be, both in law and in fact,much closer than it is currently. The two parts of this change-the legal and the factual-would reinforce each other. The legal change would be reflected in court decisions enforcing unlimited liability Regardless of the exact contours that decisions in this area took initially, there would be at least some shareholders-mutual funds, for example--whom …

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Product Definition, Product Information, And Market Power: Kodak In Perspective, Mark R. Patterson Jan 1994

Product Definition, Product Information, And Market Power: Kodak In Perspective, Mark R. Patterson

Faculty Scholarship

In Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Services, Inc., product information, market costs, market information the United States Supreme Court held that market power sufficient to impose an illegal tying arrangement can, at least in theory, derive from buyers' uncertainty regarding a product's costs and quality. Although commentators disagree on the implications of the Kodak decision, all seem to agree that the opinion's emphasis on product information costs is a departure from previously accepted economic analysis of antitrust law. In this Article, Mark R. Patterson argues that the Kodak decision is, in fact, economically reasonable, incorporating into antitrust law previously …

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Infomercials, Deceptive Advertising And The Federal Trade Commission, W.H. Ramsay Lewis Jan 1992

Infomercials, Deceptive Advertising And The Federal Trade Commission, W.H. Ramsay Lewis

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Recently, there has been growing concern among consumers, broadcasters and the Federal Trade Commission that infomercials may be a form of deceptive advertising. This note applies Federal Trade Commission guidelines to the infomercial format and concludes that infomercials are precariously close to violating commonly held standards for deceptive advertising. This note advocates that the Federal Trade Commission promulgate new standards requiring infomercials to identify themselves to consumers at all times as paid advertisements, so as to reduce the risk of consumers being unfairly fooled by advertisers.

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Securities Law Fifth Circuit Symposium, Steve Thel Jan 1988

Securities Law Fifth Circuit Symposium, Steve Thel

Faculty Scholarship

The Fifth Circuit decided some important securities cases during the survey period and issued some interesting opinions. Although the court consistently claimed a conservative reliance on precedent and seldom acknowledged making new law, it interpreted some well-established doctrine in surprising ways. The past year's opinions in fraud cases provide guidance in the related areas of reliance, damages, and plaintiff's due diligence. The year also witnessed important developments in the law governing the relationship between brokerage firms and their clients. The most spectacular development in this area during the survey year was the October collapse in security prices. In light of …

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Good Faith Reliance Upon Federal Reserve Board Staff Opinion Letters: The Circuits Converge, Michael Thomas Kelly Jan 1977

Good Faith Reliance Upon Federal Reserve Board Staff Opinion Letters: The Circuits Converge, Michael Thomas Kelly

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The Federal Reserve Board (FRB) is the central, single agency for issuing all regulations on credit disclosures. It administers the Truth in Lending Act pursuant to Title I of the Consumer Credit Protection Act. Congress intended the FRB to consolidate all disclosure requirements but the FRB did so in a confusing fashion. It utilizes three different methods of disseminating truth-in-lending information: (1) through the publication of Regulation Z, an administrative code, to prescribe disclosure rules; (2) through interpretations of the rules; and (3) through staff opinion letters. The confusion resulted from disagreements in the applicable law between the three methods. …

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Deceptive Practices In The Marketplace: Consumer Protection By New York Government Agencies, William F. Mulroney Jan 1975

Deceptive Practices In The Marketplace: Consumer Protection By New York Government Agencies, William F. Mulroney

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The past several years have witnessed considerable growth in the power and number of New York governmental consumer protection agencies. New and potent statutory powers have been granted to the Attorney General. At the local level, cities, counties, and towns have created consumer agencies and granted many of them enforcement and rulemaking powers. Legislation on all levels of state government regulates an increasing number of commercial activities for the protection of consumers. That legislation has likewise led to greater cooperation among state and local consumer agencies. This Comment will examine the structures and powers of the various New York State …

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Revolution And Counterrevolution: The Supreme Court On Creditors Remedies, Earl Phillips Jan 1974

Revolution And Counterrevolution: The Supreme Court On Creditors Remedies, Earl Phillips

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Creditors have more than a dozen prejudgment, no-notice remedies which permit them to seize or encumber a debtor's property even before the creditor has sued the debtor and recovered a judgment. Moreover, a creditor may take a debtor's property without giving the debtor prior notice and the opportunity to oppose the taking in a judicial proceeding. These extraordinary remedies have been employed in England and the United States for centuries and in the 1920s the Supreme Court affirmed their constitutionality. However, in a set of decisions beginning in with Sniadach v. Family Finance Corp. in 1969 and Fuentes v. Shevin …

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