A coalition of business groups and labor unions sued in New York state court on Friday to stop New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's ban on the sale of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces. Read the complaint and this press account. The complaint claims, among other things, that the regulations are arbitrary and irrational under New […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
That's Steven Pearlstein's characterization of the judiciary's attitude toward federal health and safety regulation in a column published today. Here's an excerpt discussing what Pearlstein views as a recent example: Their latest salvo came just before Labor Day, when a divided three-judge panel threw out rules requiring states to control the air pollution that wafts […]
As this article by Sheri Qualters explains, "Netflix Inc. has agreed to put closed captions on 100 percent of its streaming content within two years to settle a lawsuit filed by the National Association of the Deaf last year" under the Americans With Disabilities Act. This settlement could encourage other on-line video providers to follow […]
The purpose of the Airline Deregulation Act (ADA) of 1978 was to get federal and state governments out of the business of regulating the economic aspects of the commercial passenger airline industry. (The FAA still regulates the safety of air travel.) Mark Perry, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has found that, despite a […]
Today's Washington Post has this article comparing President Obama's and former Governor Romney's positions and track record on a range of health care issues.
Last Friday, we told you about eBay's anti-class-action arbitration policy and the campaign urging consumers to opt out of eBay's arbitration clause, which seeks to bar consumers' access to the courts. The campaign has been getting a lot of notice from on-line consumer advocacy sites, such as eCOMMERCEBYTES, Tech Crunch, and The Consumerist. Join the […]
We posted last week about whether the Supreme Court will take on the issue of pay-for-delay settlements. Now, this interesting article by Alison Frankel explains what she views as the FTC's efforts to maximize its influence if and when the Supreme Court grants review.
As explained in this Huff-Po story . . . As criticism over sugary sodas intensifies, Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper are rolling out new vending machines that will put calorie counts right at your fingertips.The move comes ahead of a new [federal] regulation that would require restaurant chains and vending machines to post calorie information […]
Businesses these days will go to great lengths to force their customers into arbitration and deny them access to the civil justice system. Sometimes that extends to trying to enforce an arbitration agreement that the customer is not a party to; other times, that extends to trying to enforce an arbitration agreement that the company […]
by Theresa Amato [guest post] [cross-posted from faircontracts.org] The Fine Print, a Fine Read on How a Rigged Economy Harms Consumers Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston asks why the United States ranks forty-seventh out of 224 countries in infant mortality, forty-sixth in the share of our economy spent on public education, thirty-seventh in the […]