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Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

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Full-Text Articles in Consumer Protection Law

Esg-Based Litigation: A Solution To Social Media Companies’ Immunization From Liability For Human Trafficking On Their Platforms, Grace Dore May 2026

Esg-Based Litigation: A Solution To Social Media Companies’ Immunization From Liability For Human Trafficking On Their Platforms, Grace Dore

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Social media platforms have transformed communication, but they have also become a critical tool for human traffickers, who use them to recruit victims, maintain control, and facilitate illegal activities. Despite this, social media companies have largely avoided legal accountability due to the broad immunity provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”), which courts have interpreted to shield platforms from lawsuits arising from user activity. Congress has sought to address this gap through legislation such as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (“TVPA”) and the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (“FOSTA”). However, these efforts …


Balancing A Circular Economy With Brand Protection: How Luxury Fashion Houses Can Regulate Upcycling Through Trademark Licensing, Olivia Dinkins Dec 2025

Balancing A Circular Economy With Brand Protection: How Luxury Fashion Houses Can Regulate Upcycling Through Trademark Licensing, Olivia Dinkins

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The growing demand for sustainable fashion, particularly among younger consumers, has led to a surge in upcycling practices that repurpose pre-existing materials, often featuring luxury brand trademarks. While upcycling may support a circular economy and artistic innovation, it poses complex legal challenges for trademark owners, especially concerning consumer confusion, dilution, and the use of counterfeit materials. This Note explores the intersection of trademark law and sustainability in the luxury fashion sector, highlighting the tension between environmental responsibility and intellectual property protection. This Note first analyzes the way various courts have confronted these issues and the limitations of doctrines like first …


Missing Strugglers: Debt’S Reach, Bankruptcy’S Limits, And A Proxy For Who’S Left Out, Dalié Jiménez Dec 2025

Missing Strugglers: Debt’S Reach, Bankruptcy’S Limits, And A Proxy For Who’S Left Out, Dalié Jiménez

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

This essay uses Debt’s Grip as a point of departure to examine how debt operates as a system of social control in the United States. While the book offers a vivid portrait of those who file for bankruptcy, it also gestures toward a broader reality: millions of financially distressed individuals who never access relief. Drawing on legal scholarship and political theory, this Essay argues that debt disciplines individuals, fragments solidarity, and undermines democratic agency. It proposes a new metric—the ratio of debt collection lawsuits to bankruptcy filings—as a proxy for unmet need, revealing a population of “missing strugglers” visible to …


Myth Busters: A Review Of “Debt’S Grip”, Susan Block-Lieb Dec 2025

Myth Busters: A Review Of “Debt’S Grip”, Susan Block-Lieb

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Debt’s Grip follows a long line of literature that looks to combat legal and cultural myths about consumer debt and consumer bankruptcy with quantitative and qualitative analysis on these topics. Who files for bankruptcy and why? Fighting longstanding myths is tough work, but Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless and Deborah Thorne have marshalled a strong set of tools, and strong intellectual allies, to support this epic battle.


How And Why To Be A Strategic Debtor, Chrystin Ondersma Dec 2025

How And Why To Be A Strategic Debtor, Chrystin Ondersma

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Shame and fear prevent many Americans who need debt relief from seeking it. Americans who struggle with debt should reject fear and shame and should instead feel empowered and entitled to seek relief in bankruptcy. Almost every American will need to take on debt at some point. We’re expected to use credit to acquire educations, homes, cars, and appliances—even medical care. Americans do not incur debt strategically, but rather as a matter of survival. In Dignity Not Debt, I argued that human dignity, not profits, should guide policymakers, and that our collective goal should be to end both survival debt …


Can The New Literature About Debt Make A Real Difference In The Real World?, Norman I. Silber Dec 2025

Can The New Literature About Debt Make A Real Difference In The Real World?, Norman I. Silber

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Thank you for inviting me to participate in this symposium organized around a group of new books about “Debt in the Real World.” My discussion in Part I considers from a historical perspective the place these books occupy as part of a long tradition of consumer reform which has combined popular literature with scholarship to promote change. Part II then explores themes common to this new wave. Part III closes by arguing that as in earlier periods the new wave can make headway notwithstanding attacks on governmental interventions; that there may be space in our political geography for some of …


Power, Tools, And Process: Some Reflections On Bankruptcy Minimalism, Edward J. Janger Dec 2025

Power, Tools, And Process: Some Reflections On Bankruptcy Minimalism, Edward J. Janger

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

In Unjust Debts: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America More Unequal, Melissa Jacoby offers a brilliant and sweeping indictment of the way in which bankruptcy law is currently practiced in the United States. As she puts it, “This book is a story of falling out of love. With a law.” Like me, Professor Jacoby came of professional age, at the close of the first age of the Bankruptcy Code. Enacted in 1978, we both learned the statute in the mid-1990s, at a time when the transformative power of the 1978 Code was reaching its peak. On the business side, corporations …


Barbarians At The Gate Or Angels At The Crossroads? Examining The Impact Of The Uk Green Taxonomy On Private Equity Firms, Melek Redzheb, Fatjon Kaja Sep 2025

Barbarians At The Gate Or Angels At The Crossroads? Examining The Impact Of The Uk Green Taxonomy On Private Equity Firms, Melek Redzheb, Fatjon Kaja

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

This Article explores whether the UK Green Taxonomy will foster sustainable corporate governance in private equity-backed portfolio companies. We explore how the Taxonomy will address the greenwashing problem that plagues financial markets, including the private equity industry. Our analysis suggests that general partners will have a twofold response to the new reforms. In the short term, they will seek to address the social concerns of limited partners by negatively screening unsustainable companies and cherry-picking more sustainable ones (the so-called “exit” strategy). In the long term, however, they will adopt a dynamic strategy to transform unsustainable targets into sustainable enterprises on …


Show Me The Money: Approaches To Anti-Money Laundering Compliance For Digital Assets, Mollie Rouan Sep 2025

Show Me The Money: Approaches To Anti-Money Laundering Compliance For Digital Assets, Mollie Rouan

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (“MiCA”) created a harmonized framework to regulate digital asset issuance and services that were not already covered by existing regulations. Notably, MiCA requires virtual asset providers to adhere to the Financial Action Task Force Recommendation 16 (“FATF”), also known as the Travel Rule. Though the Travel Rule has existed for almost 20 years, its application to crypto asset transfers is entirely new. The purpose of the Travel Rule is to detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, but its application to cryptocurrency wallet transactions is criticized for being overly burdensome and invasive …


A Call For Statutory Reform: Online Marketplaces That Profit From Product Sales Should Be Held Strictly Liable As Sellers, Mark Anderson Dec 2024

A Call For Statutory Reform: Online Marketplaces That Profit From Product Sales Should Be Held Strictly Liable As Sellers, Mark Anderson

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Today, Americans purchase roughly 16% of all consumer goods through online marketplaces such as Amazon. While traditional brick-and-mortar retailers that sell defective products are strictly liable for harm caused by those products, online marketplace retailers, which serve analogous roles in defective product sales, can often evade liability entirely. Amazon, for instance, is immune from liability for product defects in more than 60% of sales conducted on its website in almost every state. This Note explains why online marketplaces that profit from defective product sales should be strictly liable for harm those products cause, and why courts often refuse to hold …


Nil: How Third-Party Businesses Exploit Collegiate Student-Athletes With Impunity, Matthew Glogower Dec 2024

Nil: How Third-Party Businesses Exploit Collegiate Student-Athletes With Impunity, Matthew Glogower

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

While there are numerous state NIL (name, image, and likeness) laws protecting student-athletes from economic exploitation, there is no federal law which offers universal protection, nationwide, to student-athletes. State NIL laws offer some protections for student-athletes from exploitation by colleges, universities, and boosters, but there is no protection for student-athletes who sign NIL deals with for-profit third-party businesses. These NIL deals, between the student-athlete and third-party businesses, make up the majority of NIL agreements. Section 6 of the proposed College Athlete Economic Freedom Act (“CAEFA”), titled “Enforcement Provisions,” aims to codify federal protection for student-athletes against colleges, universities, and boosters, …


I Ain't Afraid Of No Ghost…Kitchen! A New Realm Of Consumer Protection After The Inform Consumers Act, Johanna Silva Dec 2024

I Ain't Afraid Of No Ghost…Kitchen! A New Realm Of Consumer Protection After The Inform Consumers Act, Johanna Silva

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were pervasive, sparing none from its impact. However, the restaurant industry bore an even greater change and a heavier burden than most. At the height of the pandemic, some 110,000 restaurants shut down. QR codes replaced paper menus, street parking transformed into outdoor dining sheds, and Friday night dinners at the “great spot on the corner” became takeout orders from the couch. Reopening was an unpredictable gamble for restaurant owners, fraught with tiered plans and inconsistent regulations on safe and unsafe dining practices. The desperate search for creative solutions to stay in business propelled …


It's Finally Time For A National Data Privacy Law: A Discussion Of The American Data Privacy And Protection Act (Adppa), Erin J. An Dec 2023

It's Finally Time For A National Data Privacy Law: A Discussion Of The American Data Privacy And Protection Act (Adppa), Erin J. An

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Millions of Americans face unprecedented privacy risks related to their data, often without their awareness. With the increasing value of consumer data and its growing utilization by businesses, there is a growing demand for greater transparency and privacy protections. As of 2023, no comprehensive federal law governs data privacy in the United States, leaving citizens with limited protections. Introduced to Congress on June 21, 2022, the American Data and Privacy Protection Act (ADPPA) successfully passed the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, making it the furthest a national comprehensive data privacy bill has progressed through the federal legislative …


Banking-As-A-Service: Fintechs Walking The Regulatory Perimeter, Braeden Hodges May 2023

Banking-As-A-Service: Fintechs Walking The Regulatory Perimeter, Braeden Hodges

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Financial technology (fintech) has ushered into today’s financial markets a wave of innovations that have revolutionized the way financial services are rendered and consumed. One such transformation is Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS): a partnership model through which nonbank businesses offer federally regulated banking products directly to consumers. By disintermediating the banking value chain, BaaS is democratizing access to financial services and lowering barriers to entry for many unbanked and underbanked individuals. These initiatives bring with them a number of concerns—such as data privacy risks, new forms of surveillance and discrimination, and economic instability—that are augmented by a systemic deficiency in regulators’ ability …


Let's Stop Playing Games: Why Better Congressional Interaction Is Required To Protect Young Gamers, Dominick Tarantino May 2021

Let's Stop Playing Games: Why Better Congressional Interaction Is Required To Protect Young Gamers, Dominick Tarantino

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

This Note addresses the predatory nature of video game microtransactions, the serious risks they pose, and why an improved plan of legislative intervention is necessary to protect young, vulnerable video game consumers. With loot box microtransactions driving a flourishing industry that has reached unprecedented levels of success, adequate consumer protection cannot properly be achieved through self-regulation. Senator Josh Hawley’s Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act is a step in the right direction, but its broad language will result in unintended consequences that can cripple the entire industry. Revising the bill’s language will protect the intended young consumer and allow for …


The Commodification Of Personal Data And The Road To Consumer Autonomy Through The Ccpa, Blaire Rose May 2021

The Commodification Of Personal Data And The Road To Consumer Autonomy Through The Ccpa, Blaire Rose

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The internet has transformed into a museum of personal information collected through the digital footprint we leave behind after each act performed on the web. Businesses have monetized this collection of personal data in various ways. For instance, many companies analyze this information through predicting analytics and data profiling to identify consumer interests that they can exploit as a means to generate revenue. Though user data promotes many benefits for businesses and consumers alike, the recent data breaches of massive companies, coupled with hazy privacy disclosures that beget consent disputes, have left both users and businesses perturbed and exposed to …


Warranty, Product Liability And Transaction Structure: The Problem Of Amazon, Edward J. Janger, Aaron D. Twerski Dec 2020

Warranty, Product Liability And Transaction Structure: The Problem Of Amazon, Edward J. Janger, Aaron D. Twerski

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Amazon, and other internet sales platforms, have revolutionized the manner in which goods are purchased and sold. The obligations undertaken by Amazon in those sales are unclear, both as a matter of transparency, and as a matter of legal doctrine. Is Amazon a store? Is it a shipper? Is it a telephone? In various transactions Amazon can play some or all of these roles. Choosing the right metaphor has consequences. Amazon knows this and has done everything it can to deploy the metaphors selectively to its best legal and practical advantage, even when the chosen characterizations are inapt or even …


Door Shut And Ears Plugged: How Consumer Reporting Casts Identity Theft Victims Out Of Financial Society And How The Law Can Be Harmonized To Bring Them Back In, Ryan Bolger Dec 2020

Door Shut And Ears Plugged: How Consumer Reporting Casts Identity Theft Victims Out Of Financial Society And How The Law Can Be Harmonized To Bring Them Back In, Ryan Bolger

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) are the gatekeepers to the American economy. As the chief informants for prospective lenders, landlords, and employers, they exert immense power over the day-to-day decisions of who gets what. Despite these high stakes, the CRAs run consumer reporting as an automated electronic process that causes a lot of reporting errors, disqualifying consumers from essential goods, services, and opportunities. This is painfully true in the context of identity theft, where perverse incentives pollute the integrity of consumer reporting, piling undue harm onto identity theft victims. The law provides a remedy for this problem, but circuit courts are …


The Modern Pay For Play Model: Laws That Protect Student-Athletes' Fundamental Right To Commercialze Their Names, Images, And Likeness, Paul A. Schwabe Jr. Dec 2020

The Modern Pay For Play Model: Laws That Protect Student-Athletes' Fundamental Right To Commercialze Their Names, Images, And Likeness, Paul A. Schwabe Jr.

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

In O’Bannon v. NCAA, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California entered a permanent injunction against the National Collegiate Athletic Association enjoining the collegiate sports governing body from enforcing limits on student-athlete compensation derived from the use of their name, images, and likenesses rights. The court concluded that NCAA rules unreasonably restrained trade in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, however, neither the court nor the NCAA laid out a framework for lawfully implementing these new economic rights to student-athletes. Since that ruling, only one state’s legislature, California, has attempted to pass legislation to prevent the …


Cyber-Insecurity: The Reasonableness Standard In Internet Of Things Device Regulation And Why Technical Standards Are Better Equipped To Combat Cybercrime, Chynna Rose Foucek Dec 2020

Cyber-Insecurity: The Reasonableness Standard In Internet Of Things Device Regulation And Why Technical Standards Are Better Equipped To Combat Cybercrime, Chynna Rose Foucek

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

While the Internet of Things (IoT) has created an interconnected world via phones, laptops, and even household devices, it is not infallible. As cyber-attacks increase in frequency, affecting companies of all sizes and industries, IoT device manufacturers have become particularly vulnerable, due in large part to the fact that many companies fail to implement adequate cybersecurity protocols. Mass data breaches occur often. However, these companies are not held accountable due to the use of the reasonableness standard in existing cybersecurity legislation, which is flexible and malleable. In 2019, the California Legislature enacted a cybersecurity law specific to IoT device manufacturers. …


Consumers' Declining Power In The Fintech Auto Loan Market, Pamela Foohey Dec 2020

Consumers' Declining Power In The Fintech Auto Loan Market, Pamela Foohey

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Automobiles have become part of America’s infrastructure. For most people, having access to a car is crucial to their livelihoods and they will take on significant amounts of debt to purchase vehicles. Auto debt is unlike any other consumer debt, both in its structure, which allows creditors to easily seize collateral, and in its lack of regulation. The unique and lucrative nature of auto debt has not gone unnoticed by lenders or by companies leveraging fintech to offer people new ways to purchase cars and car loans. This Article assesses the evolving marketplace for auto sales, leasing, and loans to …


Symposium: Consumer Welfare Market Structure And Political Power, Edward J. Janger Dec 2020

Symposium: Consumer Welfare Market Structure And Political Power, Edward J. Janger

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Two competing visions dominate the fields of antitrust and consumer protection: neo-liberal and progressive. The neo-classical approach is associated with Robert Bork and the Law and Economics Movement. The progressive strand is older, identified with Brandeis and early 20th Century social reform. As a matter of chronology the Brandeisian view dominated into the 1970s, but from 1980, until recently, the Borkian law and economics approach has been in ascendancy in Congress, the academy, and in the courts. Technological change and events in the broader economy have caused the politics and the academic focus to shift. The financial crisis of 2008-09 …


Saving Small Business From The Big Impact Of Data Breach: A Tiered Federal Approach To Data Protection Law, Nadia Udeshi Jun 2020

Saving Small Business From The Big Impact Of Data Breach: A Tiered Federal Approach To Data Protection Law, Nadia Udeshi

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Small businesses provide a significant positive impact on the American economy. However, the current fragmented federal and state data protection and breach notification legal scheme puts the viability of small businesses at risk. While the probability of data breaches occurring continues to increase, small businesses lack the financial and technological resources to contend with the various state and federal laws that impose different monetary penalties and remedial requirements in the event of such breaches. To preserve the viability of small businesses, Congress should enact a centralized, multi-tiered federal data protection and breach notification framework that preempts state laws, imposes minimum …


The Criminal, Regulatory, And Civil Issues Surrounding Intellectual Property And Cybersecurity, Ernest Edward Badway, Christie Mcguinness Jun 2020

The Criminal, Regulatory, And Civil Issues Surrounding Intellectual Property And Cybersecurity, Ernest Edward Badway, Christie Mcguinness

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Cyber-attacks have affected all organizations and individual consumers. Dissemination of relevant information and attention to strong information security practices is an important tool in fighting this cyber “pandemic.” Additionally, the legal and regulatory liability companies face from cyber-attacks as well as general strategies and practical solutions companies may implement to protect against cyber-intrusions and respond effectively in the event of an attack are considered. There are many iterations of cyber-crime, and we address the various methods cybercriminals use and the many ways cyber-attacks can take place, as well as the entities and victims affected. Moreover, the legal liability and regulatory …


The Heavy Hand Of Amazon: A Seller Not A Neutral Platform, Edward J. Janger, Aaron D. Twerski Jun 2020

The Heavy Hand Of Amazon: A Seller Not A Neutral Platform, Edward J. Janger, Aaron D. Twerski

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Since the adoption of Section 402A of the Second Restatement of Torts, every party in a product’s distribution chain has been potentially liable for injuries caused by product defects. Consumers who buy from reputable sellers are almost always guaranteed to have a solvent defendant if injured by a product defect. Amazon, though responsible for a vast number of retail sales, has sought to avoid liability by claiming that it is not a seller but a neutral platform that merely facilitates third-party sales to consumers. With two significant exceptions, most courts have sided with Amazon and concluded that Amazon is not …


Something To Wine About: What Proposed Revisions To Wine Labeling Requirements Mean For Growers, Producers, And Consumers, Deborah Soh May 2019

Something To Wine About: What Proposed Revisions To Wine Labeling Requirements Mean For Growers, Producers, And Consumers, Deborah Soh

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Title 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations governs the standards for the information that is printed on wine bottle labels, including the appellation of origin. Currently, however, wines are exempt from these regulations if they will not be introduced in interstate commerce. There is a proposed amendment to the Code that would bring all wines, regardless of whether they are sold interstate or solely intrastate, under the federal standards for wine labeling. Between the current system, which permits exempt wines to sidestep the regulations, and the proposal, which would exact strict standards of compliance uniformly, lies a middle-ground approach …


The Equifax Data Breach And The Resulting Legal Recourse, Caitlin Kenny Oct 2018

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 Oct 2018

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 …


The Race Is On! Regulating Self-Driving Vehicles Before They Hit The Streets, Jack Liechtung Jun 2018

The Race Is On! Regulating Self-Driving Vehicles Before They Hit The Streets, Jack Liechtung

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

As the world braces itself for the unveiling of autonomous vehicles, the idea of regulation and oversight has gone largely undetected. Though some states have already begun enacting legislation ahead of the technology’s wide release, the regulatory landscape across the country is in disarray. It is imperative that both manufacturers and consumers be given some sort of uniform understanding as to how the automation is overseen throughout the manufacturing process and how liability will be levied in the case of inevitable mistakes on our nation’s roadways. This Note proposes that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration be responsible for providing …


Video Review; Routine Data Sharing Practices Place Video-Streaming Providers In The Crosshairs Of The Video Privacy Protection Act, Jeremiah P. Ledwidge Dec 2017

Video Review; Routine Data Sharing Practices Place Video-Streaming Providers In The Crosshairs Of The Video Privacy Protection Act, Jeremiah P. Ledwidge

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (VPPA) creates a private cause of action for any consumer whose personally identifiable information has been disclosed by a video tape service provider to a third party. The rapid growth of media companies that provide free internet-based video-streaming services, and the technologically-advanced advertising methods employed to fund this business model, have created uncertainty regarding the specific consumer segments the VPPA is designed to protect. The extensive role that third-party providers play in the collection, analysis, and segmentation of user data in the personalized advertising process raises justifiable privacy concerns for consumers. Recent VPPA …