Consumer Protection Law Commons^™

Regulating Charitable Crowdfunding, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

Journal Articles

Charitable crowdfunding is a global and rapidly growing new method for raising money to benefit charities and individuals in need. While mass fundraising has existed for more than a hundred years, crowdfunding is distinguishable from those earlier efforts because of its low cost, speed of implementation, and broad reach. Reflecting these advantages, it now accounts annually for
/="/">billions of dollars raised from tens of millions of donors through hundreds of Internet platforms such as Charidy, Facebook, GoFundMe, and GlobalGiving. Although most charitable crowdfunding campaigns raise only modest amounts, every year several efforts attract tens of millions of dollars in …

Understanding American Privacy, Neil M. Richards, Andrew B. Serwin, Tyler Blake

Scholarship@WashULaw

This Article is an explanation of some of the key features of American privacy law for a general audience. In particular, it tries to explain American privacy law against the critique that because the US currently lacks a European-style privacy law, the United States lacks much in the way of privacy law. We argue that the lack of a European-style data protection law in the United States is not the end of the analysis. This article therefore offers a basic roadmap to American privacy law for the uninitiated. In order to understand American privacy, we believe that it is important …

The Surprising Virtues Of Data Loyalty, Neil M. Richards, Woodrow Hartzog

Scholarship@WashULaw

Lawmakers in the United States and Europe are seriously considering imposing duties of data loyalty that implement ideas from privacy law scholarship, but critics claim such duties are unnecessary, unworkable, overly individualistic, and indeterminately vague. This paper takes those criticisms seriously, and its analysis of them reveals that duties of data loyalty have surprising virtues. Loyalty, it turns out, can support collective well-being by embracing privacy’s relational turn; it can be a powerful state of mind for reenergizing privacy reform; it prioritizes human values rather than potentially empty formalism; and it offers solutions that are flexible and clear rather than …

The Obligations And Regulatory Challenges Of Online Broker-Dealers And Trading Platforms, Christine Lazaro, Teresa J. Verges

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Investing has been evolving for decades. On “Mayday” in 1975, the SEC abolished fixed commissions, changing the face of the brokerage industry. A few months later, Charles Schwab opened its first offices, and discount brokerages were born. By the mid-1980s, there were over 600 discount brokers operating. By 1990, discount brokerage firms captured just under than 10% of the market, although Charles Schwab captured 40% of the discount brokerage market. Throughout the 1990s, new firms entered the market, including E*Trade and AmeriTrade. Online trading became more prevalent; by 1999 25% of all trades occurred online. The term “day trader” …

The Need For Adopting Mass Arbitration Waivers In The Online Sports Betting Industry, Samuel Ditchek

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

FanDuel and DraftKings, two ascending corporate powerhouses, have been the driving force in online sports betting's surge in popularity. Akin to other online services, both of these providers have featured/currently feature binding arbitration clauses that compel users to settle disputes through arbitration. Though their Terms of Use resemble typical consumer contracts, FanDuel and DraftKings have made a costly error in failing to account for mass copycat arbitration actions. These types of actions are avenues for large groups of consumers to individually file arbitration claims in order to force a settlement. Without the intention of actually pursuing their arbitration claims, consumers …

Strengths And Weaknesses Of Notice And Consent Requirements Under The Gdpr, The Ccpa/Cpra, And The Fcc Broadband Privacy Order, Scott Jordan

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

We compare the notice and consent requirements of the three recent privacy regulations that are most likely to serve as the starting points for the creation of a comprehensive consumer privacy bill in the United States: the European General Data Protection Regulation, the Calfornia Consumer Privacy Act/California Privacy Rights Act, and the Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Privacy Order. We compare the scope of personal information under each regulation, including the test for identifiability and exclusions for de-identified information, and identify problems with their treatment of de-identified information and of pseudonymous information. We compare notice requirements, including the level of required …

What Is Consumer Protection For?, Luke Herrine

Articles

When law and economics barreled its way into consumer protection scholarship two score years ago, it brought with it the consumer sovereignty framework: an approach to analysis in which actual markets are compared to an ideal market in which consumers optimize exogenous welfare functions by choosing between optimally competitive sellers. Even after two decades of behavioralist critique and even with increasingly critical perspectives taking root since the Global Financial Crisis, this consumer sovereignty ideal continues to serve as both a descriptive and normative baseline for consumer protection scholarship.

This Article argues that it is time to reconsider the consumer sovereignty …

Opening Remarks, Christopher J. Buccafusco, Matthew Vernace

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Wild West Of Data Privacy: Why Rhode Island Needs To Enact Comprehensive Legislation To Protect Consumers’ Data, Candace Quinn

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Rules Of Professional Responsibility And Legal Finance: A Status Update, Anthony J. Sebok

Articles

Legal finance occurs when strangers fund litigation for profit. Traditionally looked upon with suspicion in the common law, and limited by the doctrines of champerty and maintenance, legal finance is now a thriving part of the American legal landscape. Legal finance has been promoted as a solution to the access-to-justice problems facing working and middle class Americans, as well as a new asset class for Wall Street. At the center of legal finance, however, are lawyers – not the lawyers who write the contracts for the financing – but the lawyers for the cases being financed.
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Dynamic Pricing Algorithms, Consumer Harm, And Regulatory Response, Alexander Mackay, Samuel Weinstein

Articles

Pricing algorithms are rapidly transforming markets, from ride-sharing, to air travel, to online retail. Regulators and scholars have watched this development with a wary eye. Their focus so far has been on the potential for pricing algorithms to facilitate explicit and tacit collusion. This Article argues that the policy challenges pricing algorithms pose are far broader than collusive conduct. It demonstrates that algorithmic pricing can lead to higher prices for consumers in competitive markets and even in the absence of collusion. This consumer harm can be initiated by a single firm employing a superior pricing algorithm. Higher prices arise from …

Addictive Technology And Its Implications For Antitrust Enforcement, James Niels Rosenquist, Fiona M. Scott Morton, Samuel N. Weinstein

Articles

The advent of mobile devices and digital media platforms in the past decade represents the biggest shock to cognition in human history. Robust medical evidence is emerging that digital media platforms are addictive and, when used in excess, harmful to users’ mental health. Other types of addictive products, like tobacco and prescription drugs, are heavily regulated to protect consumers. Currently, there is no regulatory structure protecting digital media users from these harms. Antitrust enforcement and regulation that lowers entry barriers could help consumers of social media by increasing competition. Economic theory tells us that more choice in digital media will …

A Comment On Foohey Et Al., Steering Loan Modifications Post-Pandemic, Susan Block-Lieb

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Compulsory Licensing Of Patents In Times Of Public Health Emergency, Kelsey Truglio

Touro Law Review

In March 2020, the United States shut down to avoid the continued spread of the COVID-19 virus as it spread globally. In December 2020, the first COVID-19 vaccines were granted emergency usage authorization in the United States. Wealthy nations were able to quickly purchase and hoard vaccines for public distribution, leaving many third-world countries and developing nations struggling to continue to survive the pandemic without vaccination.

Compulsory licensing should be allowed on otherwise patented or patentable new technology in times of global health emergency, regardless of which entity creates the technology. This will enable governments of countries spanning all wealth …

Fda As Food System Stewards, Margot J. Pollans, Matthew F. Watson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) is one of the primary regulators of the U.S. food system, yet it all but ignores the food system's vast environmental footprint. Although the agency is not technically an environmental agency, it could and should view redressing the food system's significant environmental footprint as part of its health and safety mission. In this Article, we review FDA's history of National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) compliance. This history affirms our hypothesis that FDA does not view its own work as environmental. The review, along with assessment of some of FDA's core food programs, reveals that …

Regulating Data Exclusivity Of Ride-Hailing Service In Indonesian Competition Law, Annisa Rahma Diasti

Indonesia Law Review

The digital ride-hailing service platforms have advanced significantly due to technological development. It resulted in lower consumer costs and better-quality service. Thus, consumers opted for such platforms more than the conventional transportation, resulting in their exponential growth over the years such as Gojek and Grab in Indonesia. Their strong market position was achieved quickly, facilitated by innovation advantages such as indirect network effects and algorithm-based analysis of users’ past data. Ultimately, data has become a barrier for potential competitors to entering the market. Simultaneously, the incumbents or the dominant market holders likely to use a technology-based strategy by keeping access …

Putting A Finger On Biometric Privacy Laws: How Congress Can Stitch Together The Patchwork Of Biometric Privacy Laws In The United States, Eliza Simons

Brooklyn Law Review

The use of biometric identification in the consumer industry has grown immensely over the last decade and is projected to continue growing at an even faster rate. As private entities abandon password-based security systems and opt for the more secure, convenient, and cost-effective method of using biometric data, individuals are worried how that information will be protected. Although the right to privacy has always been valued in the United States, Congress has yet to specifically address biometric privacy. This note sets the legal landscape of privacy law, through the lens of biometric privacy, by surveying four categories of privacy law: …

Uncertain Terms, Leah R. Fowler, Jim Hawkins, Jessica L. Roberts

Notre Dame Law Review

Health apps collect massive amounts of sensitive consumer data, including information about users’ reproductive lives, mental health, and genetics. As a result, consumers in this industry may shop for privacy terms when they select a product. Yet our research reveals that many digital health tech companies reserve the right to unilaterally amend their terms of service and their privacy policies. This ability to make one-sided changes undermines the market for privacy, leaving users vulnerable. Unfortunately, the current law generally tolerates unilateral amendments, despite fairness and efficiency concerns. We therefore propose legislative, regulatory, and judicial solutions to better protect consumers of …

The Patient Assistance Problem, Daniel O’Brien Lichtenauer

Journal of Law and Policy

Implemented in January 2006 as a voluntary enrollment supplement to standard Medicare plans, Medicare Part D coverage subsidizes the cost of prescription drugs for participants. However, significant gaps in coverage exist for those suffering from rare diseases that require costly drugs. Pharmaceutical companies seek to remove the powerful market force of patient price sensitivity by directly sponsoring or substantially funding “patient assistance programs” that help cover out-of-pocket costs. While pharmaceutical donors insist that their goal is strictly altruistic, the reality is that many of these programs offer a financial windfall for drug makers because they help funnel patients towards new …

Big Dreams And Pyramid Schemes: The Ftc’S Path To Improving Multi-Level Marketing Consumer Protections In Light Of Amg Capital Management And The 2016 Herbalife Settlement, Camille H. Mangiaratti

Journal of Law and Policy

Multi-level marketing, also known as “MLM,” is a type of sales business that relies on both sales to consumers and recruitment of sellers into the company’s tiered commission structure. MLMs are wildly and enduringly popular, especially because they claim to be a flexible and easy source of income for people who need it most. However, almost everyone who joins an MLM will lose money, and many MLMs are illegal pyramid schemes. Millions of Americans are harmed by MLMs every year. Despite this, the government does very little to punish MLMs who lie to prospective participants about their odds of success. …