Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Amy Schmitz Article on Big Data and Consumer Scores

Amy Schmitz of Colorado has written Secret Consumer Scores and Segmentations: Separating Consumer 'Haves' from 'Have-Nots', Michigan State Law Review, p. 1411 (2014). Here is the abstract: “Big Data” is big business. Data brokers profit by tracking consumers’ information and behavior both on- and offline and using this collected data to assign consumers evaluative scores […]

Taha Paper on Advertising Atypical Results

Ahmed E. Taha of Pepperdine has written Selling the Outlier, forthcoming in the Journal of Corporation Law.  Here is the abstract:   Advertisements for products ranging from weight-loss programs to mutual funds regularly feature the results of people who have used the product.  However, these advertisements often present the results only of people who had an atypically […]

Steinzor Asks Why Auto Executives Have Not Been Jailed

Rena I. Steinzor of Maryland and the Center for Progressive Reform has written (Still) 'Unsafe at Any Speed': Why Not Jail for Auto Executives? Harvard Law & Policy Review (Forthcoming).  Here's the abstract: Americans can be forgiven for wondering what has gone so drastically wrong with the companies that sell automobiles.  In 2014, 64 million, […]

House Appropriations Committee Votes to Block Arbitration Reform

by Jeff Sovern CFPB Monitor is reporting: [T]he House Appropriations Committee has approved an amendment to the FY 2016 Financial Services Appropriations bill that would impose new requirements on the CFPB before it can issue a rule governing arbitration agreements.  The amendment, which was introduced by Republican Representatives Steve Womack and Tom Graves, reportedly would […]

Empirical Study of Arbitration and Repeat Player Effect

David Horton and Andrea Cann Chandrasekher both of California, Davis, have written After the Revolution: An Empirical Study of Consumer Arbitration, 104 Georgetown Law Journal (Forthcoming 2015). Here's the abstract: For decades, mandatory consumer arbitration has been ground zero in the war between the business community and the plaintiffs’ bar.  Some courts, scholars, and interest […]

Woodward on “Contraps”

William J. Woodward Jr.of Santa Clara has written Contraps, 66 Hastings Law Journal (2015). Here is the abstract: Forms that purport to govern consumer transactions are a central component of our modern consumer economy. They are routinely enforced because consumers are said to “manifest assent” to them, despite the fact that they are not read […]

Do Opt-Out Clauses Save Arbitration Agreements from Being Unconscionable?

by Jeff Sovern In Mohamed v. Uber, the federal district court for the Northern District of California said no.  Opt-out clauses appear in contracts and give the contracting parties the right to opt-out of arbitration to resolve disputes within a certain period of time after entering into the contract, often thirty or sixty days (which […]