Consumer Protection Law Commons^™

Consumer Contract Exchanges And The Problem Of Adhesion, Andrew A. Schwartz

Publications

Businesses and sophisticated parties have long used "contract exchanges," like the Chicago Board of Trade, to obtain a fair price and protect themselves from market volatility. These contract exchanges have greatly benefited both their participants and the public at large, but participation was long limited to a wealthy few. A decade ago, however, Internet websites, including Hotwire and Priceline, brought the power of contract exchanges directly to consumers, allowing regular people to flex their collective bargaining power to obtain low prices on travel services. Even more recently, other such "consumer contract exchanges," including Prosper and MoneyAisle, have organized vibrant markets …

Walmart's Other Woman Problem: Sprawl And Work-Family Balancing, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

Wal-Mart is often said to be bad for its workers, including those workers in its production chain in developing countries, and good for its consumers, most of whom are women. Most people argue that its consumers gain from low prices. This brief essay argues that consumers absorb a share of the costs of Wal-Mart's low prices. Contrary to intuition, Wal-Mart may increase significantly the financial and time pressures on its shoppers, the majority of whom can ill-afford increases in either. Most small retail is sited to take advantage of travel routines people have already established to meet their residential and …

Using Arbitration To Eliminate Consumer Class Actions: Efficient Business Practice Or Unconscionable Abuse?, Jean R. Sternlight, Elizabeth J. Jensen

Scholarly Works

Companies are increasingly drafting arbitration clauses worded to prevent consumers from bringing class actions against them in either litigation or arbitration. If one looks at the form contracts she receives regarding her credit card, cellular phone, land phone, insurance policies, mortgage, and so forth, most likely, the majority of those contracts include arbitration clauses, and many of those include prohibitions on class actions. Companies are seeking to use these clauses to shield themselves from class action liability, either in court or in arbitration.

This article argues that while the unconscionability doctrine offers some protections, case-by-case adjudication is a costly means …

Legalizing Merger To Monopoly And Higher Prices: The Canadian Competition Tribunal Gets It Wrong, Alan A. Fisher Ph.D., Robert H. Lande, Stephen F. Ross

All Faculty Scholarship

This article analyzes the Canadian Superior Propane decision, apparently the first merger decision in world history to consider explicitly what to do when a merger was predicted to lead to both higher consumer prices and to net efficiencies. The article advocates analyzing the merger under a "price to consumers" or "consumer welfare" standard, rather than a total efficiency standard, and advocates that the enforcers and the courts block such mergers.

Consumer Sovereignty: A Unified Theory Of Antitrust And Consumer Protection Law, Neil W. Averitt, Robert H. Lande

All Faculty Scholarship

This article is about the relationship between antitrust and consumer protection law. Its purpose is to define each area of law, to delineate the boundary between them, to show how they interact with each other, and to show how they ultimately support one another as the two component parts of an overarching unity: effective consumer choice (also called consumer sovereignty).

Consumer choice only is effective when two fundamental conditions are present. There must be a range of consumer options made possible through competition, and consumers must be able to choose effectively among these options. The antitrust laws are intended to …

Trial By Jury

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Need For Revisiting The Imposition Of Bad Faith Liability: Industrial Indemnity Co. V. Kallevig, J. Benson Porter, Jr.

Seattle University Law Review

This Note posits two recommendations. First, in order to harmonize the bad faith standards applied in Kallevig and Gingrich, the Kallevig reasonable justification standard should be applied in situations involving questions similar to those confronted by the Gingrich court. Second, this Note contends that the Kallevig court's analysis imposing liability under the CPA was defective because it failed to take proper account of the frequency requirement within the unfair trade practices regulations. By ignoring the frequency provision, the Kallevig decision allows inconsistent treatment of similar factual situations depending on whether the decision is being made by an agency or …

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. …

Advertising Regulation: The Contemporary Ftc Approach, Gerald J. Thain

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article deals with the Federal Trade Commission's traditional activities of adjudication and rule-making by discussing expansion of theories of violation, standards of proof and remedies in advertising cases brought under section 5 of the FTC Act. Specifically, the article discusses pending cases and the FTC's involvement in deceptive advertising, the "Unfairness Doctrine," and the problems associated with advertising targeted at children. The article then evaluates the FTC's alternative approaches to adjudication and rule-making through its substantiation program and stance on counter-advertising.

Unsafe At Any Rate- The New York Motor Vehicle Retail Instalment Sales Act

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article focuses on motor vehicle retail instalment contracts and their impact on consumer credit development, the abuses they have engendered, and the pattern of regulation which has grown around them. The article first addresses the history of the market and then examines the New York Motor Vehicle Retail Instalment Sales Act, urging legislative reform.