Consumer Protection Law Commons^™

Foreseeability And Duty In Washington Negligence Law: Leaving The Road Less Traveled By, Leo Linder

Seattle University Law Review

Washington negligence law is a confusing labyrinth of foreseeability that not even Ariadne’s string could guide plaintiffs out of. Foreseeability is implicated in four distinct analyses, several of which overlap considerably. Doctrines that were once questions of law are now questions of fact, and vice versa. Something needs to change.

Washington has taken the novel approach of bifurcating the duty element into two parts—duty’s mere existence, which is a question of law for the court to determine; and duty’s scope, which is a question of fact handed off to the jury to determine. Foreseeability impacts both of these assessments, but …

On The Basis Of Pink: Finding A Balanced Approach To Addressing Gender-Based Price Discrimination On A National Level, Emily L. Brown

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Market Testing Boilerplate, Kelli Alces Williams

Scholarly Publications

Boilerplate contract terms are regularly enforced against consumers who do not like them and would not have selected them if given a choice. But there is no choice. Such terms are offered on a take it or leave it basis to consumers who are either unaware of the terms until a problem arises or hope those terms will never have to be invoked. The lack of meaningful choice is justified by arguments that consumers will avoid contracts that contain harmful terms, so market constraints will prevent businesses from offering socially inefficient terms. If consumers really had a problem with certain …

The Fourth Estate's Estate, Ramsi Woodcock

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The news industry in the United States faces a funding crisis because the tech giants, particularly Google and Facebook, have acceded to the advertising monopolies once enjoyed by the newspaper industry itself. Breakup of these monopolies is unlikely to restore the news industry’s profits, however, because search and social media will remain better ad distribution channels than the news whether search and social media are competitive or monopolized. A better solution to the funding crisis would be for government to divide the advertising distribution market, reallocating to the news industry some of the ad impressions taken from it by the …

Table Of Contents, Loyola Consumer Law Review

Loyola Consumer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Potential Economic Impacts Of The Credit Card Competition Act Of 2023, Ling Ling Ang, Alan Grant, Peter Traber

Loyola Consumer Law Review

We consider the potential economic impacts of the Credit Card Competition Act of 2023 ("CCCA"), drawing on economic literature on two-sided markets and effects of previous U.S. regulatory policy associated with payment cards. Implementation of the CCCA shifts network routing choice from the consumer side of the market to the merchant side of the market. While this would likely decrease interchange fees, an interchange fee decrease only reflects a shift in the balance of costs from the merchant side to the consumer side not a decrease in the total price of processing a credit card transaction. A reduction in interchange …

Consumer Impacts Of California's Climate Agenda: Vehicle Electrification Agreements May Violate Antitrust Law, Jessica D. Quinn

Loyola Consumer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Student Loan Debt: The Long-Term Economic Consequences, Judith Fox

Loyola Consumer Law Review

There are nearly 1.6 trillion dollars in outstanding federal student loans and more than 59 billion in private loans. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic student loan debt was being called a crisis. Student loan debt topped all consumer debt except mortgages. Delinquencies were rising and debtors, especially millennials, were feeling crushed under their impact. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and student loan payments were put on hold, providing the conditions to examine the economic effects of student loan payments on student borrowers. This paper explores some of the effects of the student-loan debt burden has had on our economy and …

A Historical Perspective On Student Loan Cancellation, John Patrick Hunt

Loyola Consumer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Save Public Service Loan Forgiveness: A Proposal For Reform, Anthony A. Smith

Loyola Consumer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Too Big To Fly: Rethinking Antitrust In The Airline Industry After United States V.Jetblue Airways Corporation, Kathleen Driscoll

Loyola Consumer Law Review

Over the last few years, the United States Government has amped up its antitrust enforcement, suing to block various multibillion dollar deals between big corporations across different industries. Last year, the Justice Department brought suit to prevent a merger between Jet Blue Airways and Spirit Airlines, the sixth and seventh largest airlines in the United States, respectively. The Justice Department argued that this consolidation of the airline industry would harm consumers because it would drive costs up and limit choices. The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts permanently enjoined the merger, and Jet Blue and Spirit have since called off the …

Assessing Design Defectiveness In The Digital Age, Elizabeth Petras

Emory Law Journal

Modern technology is advancing at an unprecedented rate, and further advancements show no signs of slowing down. As technology rapidly evolves, so does the complexity of product designs. However, as these advancements occur, the tests employed by courts to determine whether a product design is defective remain largely unchanged. There are two main tests used by jurisdictions to determine whether a design is defective. The first is the consumer expectations test, which provides that when a product used in a reasonably foreseeable manner is more dangerous than an ordinary consumer would expect it to be, it is defective. The second …

Controlling Moral Hazard In Limited Liability With The Consumer Sales Practices Act, Nathaniel Vargas Gallegos

Journal of Legislation

The few states that have passed the Model Consumer Sales Practices Act have common definitions and case law regarding the definition of a “supplier.” This definition is broad enough to include managers of companies in limited liability entities in the states that have adopted the model act. The practicality is that business principals, owners, and managers can be held personally liable for deceptive practices under the state acts. But this is not a piercing of the corporate veil or of the limited-liability company. This Article is meant to accomplish four purposes: (1) exhibit the origins of the act, (2) show …

The Need For Corporate Guardrails In U.S. Industrial Policy, Lenore Palladino

Seattle University Law Review

U.S. politicians are actively “marketcrafting”: the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act collectively mark a new moment of robust industrial policy. However, these policies are necessarily layered on top of decades of shareholder primacy in corporate governance, in which corporate and financial leaders have prioritized using corporate profits to increase the wealth of shareholders. The Administration and Congress have an opportunity to use industrial policy to encourage a broader reorientation of U.S. businesses away from extractive shareholder primacy and toward innovation and productivity. This Article examines discrete opportunities within the …

Securities Regulation And Administrative Deference In The Roberts Court, Eric C. Chaffee

Seattle University Law Review

In A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court, A.C. Pritchard and Robert B. Thompson write, “Securities law offers an illuminating window into the Supreme Court’s administrative law jurisprudence over the last century. The securities cases provide one of the most accessible illustrations of key transitions of American law.” A main reason for this is that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a bellwether among administrative agencies, and as a result, A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court is a history of administrative law in the Supreme Court of the United States as well.

Delegated Corporate Voting And The Deliberative Franchise, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

Starting in the 1930s with the earliest version of the proxy rules, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has gradually increased the proportion of “instructed” votes on the shareholder’s proxy card until, for the first time in 2022, it required a fully instructed proxy card. This evolution effectively shifted the exercise of the shareholder’s vote from the shareholders’ meeting to the vote delegation that occurs when the share-holder fills out the proxy card. The point in the electoral process when the binding voting choice is communicated is now the execution of the proxy card (assuming the shareholder completes the card …

Capitalism Stakeholderism, Christina Parajon Skinner

Seattle University Law Review

Today’s corporate governance debates are replete with discussion of how best to operationalize so-called stakeholder capitalism—that is, a version of capitalism that considers the interests of employees, communities, suppliers, and the environment alongside (if not before) a company’s shareholders. So much focus has been dedicated to the question of capitalism’s reform that few have questioned a key underlying premise of stakeholder capitalism: that is, that competitive capitalism does not serve these various constituencies and groups. This Essay presents a different view and argues that capitalism is, in fact, the ultimate form of stakeholderism. As such, the Essay urges that the …

The Esg Information System, Stavros Gadinis, Amelia Miazad

Seattle University Law Review

The mounting focus on ESG has forced internal corporate decision-making into the spotlight. Investors are eager to support companies in innovative “green” technologies and scrutinize companies’ transition plans. Activists are targeting boards whose decisions appear too timid or insufficiently explained. Consumers and employees are incorporating companies sustainability credentials in their purchasing and employment decisions. These actors are asking companies for better information, higher quality reports, and granular data. In response, companies are producing lengthy sustainability reports, adopting ambitious purpose statements, and touting their sustainability credentials. Understandably, concerns about greenwashing and accountability abound, and policymakers are preparing for action.

In this …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

The Marijuana Insurgency: Federalism And Social Reframing In Policy Reform, Matthew P. Cavedon

Seattle University Law Review

After fifty years of federal prohibition, marijuana reform efforts have won political and legal success. These victories hold lessons for anyone seeking to resist federal law without being able to directly affect it.

Victory can come from reframing an issue. For marijuana reform, social reframing—not formal legal analysis or material factors—provides the best explanation for how advocates achieved change. Their unconventional political tactics, akin to those used by insurgents in wartime, undercut federal prohibition by winning hearts and minds.

This is an analysis of the sociology of legal change. It is also the story of how ordinary Americans retook personal …