Consumer Protection Law Commons^™

Paving The Road Ahead: Autonomous Vehicles, Products Liability, And The Need For A New Approach, Kevin Funkhouser

Utah Law Review

Cars that drive themselves may seem about as realistic as Marty McFly’s DeLorean in Back to the Future, but this is far from the case. Autonomous technology is available and in use in many new vehicle models. In fact, in 2010 Google announced that the company had successfully built cars capable of driving themselves (“autonomous cars”). Even more amazing, at its 2010 announcement, Google also revealed its driverless cars (customized Toyota Prius models) had logged over 100,000 miles on public roads. As of early 2013, Google’s several autonomous vehicles have traveled over 300,000 miles, and have yet to cause a …

Products Liability And Economic Activity: An Empirical Analysis Of Tort Reform's Impact On Businesses, Employment, And Production, Joanna M. Shepherd

Vanderbilt Law Review

For decades, advocates of tort reform have argued that expansive products liability stifles economic activity by imposing excessive and unpredictable liability costs on businesses. Although politicians aspiring to create jobs, attract businesses, and improve the economy have relied on this argument to enact hundreds of reforms, it has largely gone empirically untested. No longer. Using the most comprehensive dataset to date on products liability reforms and economic activity, I find that many reforms that restrict the scope of products liability improve economic conditions. Specifically, these reforms increase the number of businesses, employment, and production in the industries that face most …

Sacrificial Lambs: Compensating First Subscribers To Fda-Approved Medications For Postmarketing Injuries Resulting From Unlabeled Adverse Events, Rodney K. Miller

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ensuring Remedies To Cure Cramming, Amy J. Schmitz

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

On July 23, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") called wireless telephone bill cramming "a significant consumer problem," and both the FTC and Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") have been delving into the morass of concerns regarding cramming with respect to landline (or wired) telephone billing. "Cramming" occurs when a third party unaffiliated with a customer's telephone company adds charges to the telephone bills that the company sends to the customer. These charges can be for anything from horoscopes to long-distance telephone services.

Three Paradoxes Of Big Data, Neil M. Richards, Jonathan H. King

Scholarship@WashULaw

Big data is all the rage. Its proponents tout the use of sophisticated analytics to mine large data sets for insight as the solution to many of our society’s problems. These big data evangelists insist that data-driven decision making can now give us better predictions in areas ranging from college admissions to dating to hiring to medicine to national security and crime prevention. But much of the rhetoric of big data contains no meaningful analysis of its potential perils, only the promise. We don’t deny that big data holds substantial potential for the future, and that large dataset analysis has …

The Perils Of Social Reading, Neil M. Richards

Scholarship@WashULaw

Our law currently treats records of our reading habits under two contradictory rules: rules mandating confidentiality and rules permitting disclosure. Recently, the rise of the social Internet has created more of these records and more pressures on when and how they should be shared. Companies like Facebook, in collaboration with many newspapers, have ushered in the era of “social reading,” in which what we read may be “frictionlessly shared” with our friends and acquaintances. Disclosure and sharing are on the rise.

This Article sounds a cautionary note about social reading and frictionless sharing. Social reading might have some appeal, but …

Dirt Lawyers And Dirty Remics: A Debate, David J. Reiss, Bradley T. Borden, Joshua Stein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Voluntary Recalls, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Federal Reserve's Supporting Role Behind Dodd-Frank's Clearinghouse Reforms, Colleen M. Baker

Journal Articles

This Article analyzes the Federal Reserve’s expanded role in payment, clearing, and settlement systems, particularly in connection with certain clearinghouses that have been designated by the newly created Financial Stability Oversight Council as “systemically significant.” The Federal Reserve’s expanded role is a little understood, but critical supporting component of domestic and international regulatory reforms to the $639 trillion over-the-counter (OTC) derivative markets. These reforms mandate the increased use of clearinghouses in OTC derivative markets. Due to critical reforms in Title VIII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the Federal Reserve is now positioned to …

Front-Of-Package Nutrition Claims: Trustworthy Facts Or Deceptive Marketing? Closing The Loopholes In Labeling, Kathryn E. Hayes

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that front-of-package (FOP) labeling on children's food products is insufficient and often misleading, failing to meet basic nutritional standards. It advocates for the adoption of uniform, science-based labeling standards developed by an objective body like the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to help parents make healthier choices. The analysis highlights the limitations of self-regulation by manufacturers and the need for stronger governmental oversight to address deceptive practices and improve public health outcomes.

A Deference To Protocol: Fashioning A Three-Dimensional Public Policy Framework For The Internet Age, Richard S. Whitt

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

This Article discusses how public policy grounded in the Internet's architecture can best ensure that the Net fully enables tangible benefits such as innovation, economic growth, free expression, and user empowerment. In particular, recognizing that the Internet is rapidly becoming society's chief operating system, this Article shows how an overarching public policy framework should be faithful to the multifaceted nature of the online world. As part of such a framework, this Article will explore one key aspect of the Internet: the "logical" Middle Layers functions, its inner workings derived from open software protocols and inclusive, decentralized processes. Adhering to the …

The Electronic Silk Road: How The Web Binds The World In Commerce, Anupam Chander

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

On the ancient Silk Road, treasure-laden caravans made their arduous way through deserts and mountain passes, establishing trade between Asia and the civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean. Today’s electronic Silk Roads ferry information across continents, enabling individuals and corporations anywhere to provide or receive services without obtaining a visa. But the legal infrastructure for such trade is yet rudimentary and uncertain. If an event in cyberspace occurs at once everywhere and nowhere, what law applies? How can consumers be protected when engaging with companies across the world?

In this accessible book, cyber-law expert Anupam Chander provides the first thorough …

Where The Fcra Meets The Fdcpa: The Impact Of Unfair Collection Practices On The Credit Report, Mary B. Spector

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article explores the impact that contemporary practices in consumer debt collection litigation may have on credit reporting and scoring. In doing so, it pays particular attention to available data regarding the use of unfair collection practices in such litigation, and considers whether consumer reports of such litigation unfairly burden consumers’ ability to obtain housing, employment, insurance, or credit. It highlights some of the obstacles consumers face at the intersection of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act and considers alternative proposals to provide fair and accurate information relating to consumer debts while also preventing …

Autonomous Vehicle Liability—Application Of Common Carrier Liability, Dylan Levalley

Seattle University Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

Information Overload: Why Omnipresent Technology And The Rise Of Big Data Shouldn’T Spell The End For Privacy As We Know It, Devin W. Ness

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Caught In A Bind: Reassuring Judicial Authority To Bind Non-Party Search Engines Under Rule 65 In Counterfeit Goods Cases, Courtney Brown

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Drafting Arbitration Agreements: A Practioner's Guide For Consumer Credit Contracts, Nicole F. Munro, Peter L. Cockrell

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

The Constitutionality Of Consumer Privacy Regulation, Felix T. Wu

Articles

The article argues for enhanced consumer privacy protections through improved notices and restrictions on data sharing, while addressing potential First Amendment concerns by emphasizing the commercial nature of the entities involved. It suggests that regulating commercial data practices differs from restricting individual free speech and should not face the same legal hurdles.

Consumer Subject Review Boards: A Thought Experiment, Ryan Calo

Articles

The adequacy of consumer privacy law in America is a constant topic of debate. The majority position is that United States privacy law is a “patchwork,” that the dominant model of notice and choice has broken down, and that decades of self-regulation have left the fox in charge of the henhouse. A minority position chronicles the sometimes surprising efficacy of our current legal infrastructure.

But the challenges posed by big data to consumer protection feel different. They seem to gesture beyond privacy’s foundations or buzzwords, beyond “fair information practice principles” or “privacy by design.” The challenges of big data may …

Private Rights For The Public Good?, J. Janewa Oseitutu

Faculty Publications

The counterfeit medicines discussion is an example of how the use of a turbid rationale for greater intellectual property protections serves sophisticated private interests while potentially harming the public interest. The risk of harm created by counterfeit medicines provides a compelling counter-narrative to the access to medicines critique of intellectual property rights.

Intellectual property advocates and the pharmaceutical industry have portrayed poor global enforcement of intellectual property rights as contributing to the proliferation of dangerous counterfeit medications. Yet, the deliberate linkage in the literature between weak intellectual property rights and the harms caused by counterfeit medicines provides a justification for …