Consumer Protection Law Commons^™

The Social Relations Of Consumption: Corporate Law And The Meaning Of Consumer Culture, David G. Yosifon

BYU Law Review

A mature assessment of the society we are making for ourselves, and the legacy we are leaving to the future, must come to terms with consumer culture. Theoretical discourse, as well as common experience, betray persistent ambiguity about what consumerism means to and says about us. In this Article, I argue that this ambiguity can in part be explained by examining the social relations of consumption in contemporary society. These involve, crucially, the relationship between producer and consumer that is dictated by corporate governance law, and embodied in the decision-making dynamics of the directors who command corporate operations. The enigmatic …

Protecting The Consumer: Ensuring Uniformity In The Federal Courts When Named Plaintiffs Assert Claims Against Unpurchased Products, Michael G. Lewis

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Note determines that whether a named plaintiff has standing to assert claims relating to unpurchased products is a question of class standing and is therefore a question for the Rule 23 class certification stage of litigation. However, in certain situations, a named plaintiff’s claims against unpurchased products should not survive a defendant’s motion to dismiss. Accordingly, this Note proposes a test to determine when the claim should survive. At the motion to dismiss stage of litigation, a named consumer protection class action plaintiff’s claims relating to products purchased by unnamed members of the putative class should survive defendant’s …

Revising The U.S. Vertical Merger Guidelines: Policy Issues And An Interim Guide For Practitioners, Steven C. Salop, Daniel P. Culley

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Mergers and acquisitions are a major component of antitrust law and practice. The U.S. antitrust agencies spend a majority of their time on merger enforcement. The focus of most merger review at the agencies involves horizontal mergers, that is, mergers among firms that compete at the same level of production or distribution.

Vertical mergers combine firms at different levels of production or distribution. In the simplest case, a vertical merger joins together a firm that produces an input (and competes in an input market) with a firm that uses that input to produce output (and competes in an output market). …

Bankruptcy Law, Hon. Kevin R. Huennekens, Nathan Kramer

University of Richmond Law Review

This article will cover both consumer and business bankruptcy issues, and is limited primarily to decisions by courts within the Fourth Circuit since mid-2012. Despite these general parameters, because bankruptcy is federal law, there are some cases outside the Fourth Circuit that are included due to their influential and instructive nature. The intention of this update is to provide bankruptcy practitioners in Virginia with concise, yet compre-hensive, case summaries that will prove to be a valuable researchtool.

Trending @ Rwulaw: Professor Peter Margulies's Post: Cybersecurity: A 'Must-Know' For Lawyers And Citizens, Peter Margulies

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

A Consumer Perspective On The Tokyo Round, Clinton Warne

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Cost Of Confusion: The Paradox Of Trademarked Pharmaceuticals, Hannah Brennan

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The United States spends nearly $1,000 per person annually on drugs—forty percent more than the next highest spender, Canada, and more than twice the amount France and Germany spend. Although myriad factors contribute to high drug spending in the United States, intellectual property law plays a crucial and well-documented role in inhibiting access to cheaper, generic medications. Yet, for the most part, the discussion of the relationship between intellectual property law and drug spending has centered on patent protection. Recently, however, a few researchers have turned their attention to a different avenue of exclusivity—trademark law. New studies suggest that pharmaceutical …

Mandatory Arbitration In Consumer Finance And Investor Contracts, Michael S. Barr

Articles

Mandatory pre-dispute arbitration clauses are pervasive in consumer financial and investor contracts—for credit cards, bank accounts, auto loans, broker-dealer services, and many others. These clauses often ill serve households. Consumers are typically presented with contracts on a “take it or leave it” basis, with no ability to negotiate over terms. Arbitration provisions are often not clearly disclosed, and in any event are not salient for consumers, who do not focus on the importance of the provision in the event that a dispute over the contract later arises, and who may misforecast the likelihood of being in such a dispute. The …

An Empirical Look At Compensation In Consumer Class Actions, Brian T. Fitzpatrick, Robert C. Gilbert

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Consumer class actions are under broad attack for providing little in compensation to class members. One response to this charge is the argument that one of us has made elsewhere: consumer class actions should not be measured by their compensatory value, but by their deterrence value. But here we take up this critique of consumer class actions on its own terms: can they serve a meaningful compensatory role? Scholars have taken up this question before, but they have been stymied by the lack of available data. In this Article, we present original data on the distribution of class action settlements …

Symposium: Regulatory Capture And Technological Entrepreneurship: Protecting Consumer Interests?, Robert Anderson, John G. Shearer, Christopher Koopman, Makan Delrahim, Erik Syverson, Babbette Boliek

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Sharing Economy And Consumer Protection Regulation: The Case For Policy Change, Christopher Koopman, Matthew Mitchell, Adam Thierer

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

In this Paper, we discuss the central benefit of the sharing economy thus far: it has overcome market imperfections without recourse to regulatory bodies prone to capture by entrenched firms. As an introduction to the various issues surrounding this ongoing debate, we begin with an explanation of the sharing economy. Then we review the traditional “consumer protection” rationales for economic regulation and explain why many regulations persist even though their initial justifications are no longer valid. We argue continued application of these outmoded regulatory regimes is likely to harm consumers. In the last section, we explain how the Internet and …

The 4th Annual Professor Anthony J. Santoro Business Law Lecture Series: Consumer Protection In The Broadband Era: The Role Of The Fcc, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

New Dtca Guidance — Enough To Empower Consumers?, Christopher Robertson

Faculty Scholarship

As one of only two countries that permit direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of pharmaceuticals, the United States tasks the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with regulating that advertising to ensure that it doesn't mislead consumers. When a drug maker publishes or broadcasts a claim that its drug has benefits in a particular disease, the FDA requires it to include information on the product's risks as well. Since it's not feasible for companies to include all the important information about their products in a television ad, the FDA requires them to refer viewers to more complete information, such as that in a …

Consumer Protection Via The Larceny By Trick Statute, Jerry A. Davis

Akron Law Review

In the decision of State v. Healy, the Ohio Supreme Court examined and interpreted the so-called larceny by trick statute. The significance of that decision in terms of consumer protection for Ohio is immense, though as yet unfelt because of a disinclination on the part of public officials and the legal community to use criminal statutes for such a purpose.

Ohio's Usury Laws And Their Effect Upon The Home Mortgage Market: Economic And Constitutional Inequities, David M. Hunter

Akron Law Review

The concept of usury regulation is a well settled principle in the law, founded primarily upon the misguided perception of interest limitations as efficient and necessary legislation promoting the popular notion of consumer protection by cautiously supervising credit markets. Endowed with a lengthy history, limitations precluding the usurious assessment of interest charges have acquired a time-honored, almost sacred position in the statutory scheme of Ohio, as well as other states. This favored outlook toward usury laws is further bolstered by its ill-founded appeal as legislation in the best interests of the borrower. As a result, usury restrictions are often seen …

Ohio's Newest Consumer Protection: The Prepaid Entertainment Contract Act, Sandra S. Braden

Akron Law Review

The Prepaid Entertainment Contract Act is not complex in its drafting and should be readily understandable by the consumer in informing him of his rights under a future service contract. There are, however, several aspects of PECA which will require clarification. First, the definition of "first service" will present problems in construction if a practical application of the Act is to be realized. Second, the extent to which a violation of this Act constitutes a per se deceptive act under the Consumer Sales Practices Act may require interpretation.' Third, a proposed Trade Regulation Rule by the Federal Trade Commission concerning …

Ohio's Newest Consumer Protection: The Prepaid Entertainment Contract Act, Sandra S. Braden

Akron Law Review

The Prepaid Entertainment Contract Act is not complex in its drafting and should be readily understandable by the consumer in informing him of his rights under a future service contract. There are, however, several aspects of PECA which will require clarification. First, the definition of "first service ' will present problems in construction if a practical application of the Act is to be realized. Second, the extent to which a violation of this Act constitutes a per se deceptive act under the Consumer Sales Practices Act may require interpretation.' Third, a proposed Trade Regulation Rule by the Federal Trade Commission …

Side Effects: State Anti-Fraud Statutes, Off-Label Marketing, And The Solvable Challenge Of Causation, Isaac D. Buck

Cardozo Law Review

While the American public remains preoccupied with the lurching implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the regulation of pharmaceutical companies for their off-label marketing and promotion of drugs features a regulatory environment within the health industry that seems to be in wild flux. Following the Second Circuit's decision in United States v. Caronia, commentators and providers are unsure about the future of federal regulation in this area, with the FDA seeking to minimize the opinion and pharmaceutical companies celebrating its impact. Much of the understandably spirited reaction to the Caronia case has omitted a discussion of the relevant and …

Due Process As Consumer Protection: State Remedies For Distant Forum Abuse, Alan K. Chen

Akron Law Review

This article takes the position that distant forum abuse is a practice which should be and can be halted by the employment of state consumer protection statutes. The article first lays out a history of distant forum abuse and its role as a tool for debt collection harassment. Next, it examines legal developments in this area at both the federal and state levels, and explains the need for a more wide-reaching remedy in most jurisdictions. The third section briefly addresses important aspects of procedural waivers under contract law which must be taken into account by policy-makers when fashioning new remedies …

Challenges Under Truth In Lending: Suing For Rescission, Giving Clear And Conspicuous Notice, And Electing Not To Rescind, Elwin Griffith

Akron Law Review

This Article reveals that the uniformity sought by Congress through TILA has challenged the courts to clarify the relationship between a notice of rescission and a suit for rescission, the relevance of the consumer’s ability to tender the loan principal, and the difficulty of recognizing a creditor’s attempt to accommodate a consumer’s premature election not to cancel a transaction.