Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

The FTC’s inadequate Kochava proposed privacy settlement

Back in 2022, the FTC accused Kochava of engaging in unfair practices because it sold vast amounts of data obtained from smart phones, including geolocation data (where the phones were); profiles of consumers, including their marital status, ethnicity, gender identity, political association, employment; what phone apps they had and how much time they spent on […]

Blasie paper on the legal system’s foundational delusion: that ordinary people can understand the laws and legal documents that govern them

Michael Blasie of Seattle has written Information Poverty and the Right to Understand. Here is the abstract: Legal systems around the world, and particularly in the United States, rest on a foundational delusion: that ordinary people can understand the laws and legal documents that govern them. Despite the growing focus on “access to justice,” most […]

Survey finds 48% of Americans would be embarrassed to say they signed a contract without reading it.

The survey was conducted by the Goldberg Law Group. Only 16% of Americans say they read every word of a contract. I very much doubt it’s even that high. Almost certainly some of the people who said they read every word were too embarrassed to say they didn’t.  For example, when I polled consumer financial […]

Teaching Consumer Law hotel deadline extended to May 19, plus former FTC commissioner Slaughter to speak

Here’s the latest announcement: The UC Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice and the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana are proud to present the fourteenth biennial international Teaching Consumer Law Conference. We are also excited to announce that this conference will constitute the first-ever North American (and Caribbean/Central American) […]

Federal Roundup judge calls class action settlement filthy and mindboggling

So Amanda Bronstad reports at Law.com in Federal Roundup Judge Refuses to Step Into ‘Mind-Boggling’ $7.25B Class Settlement. Excerpt: [Judge] Chhabria said, “You have a meeting with the judge on the day you filed it, a prearranged meeting with the judge on the day you filed it. You say it was in open court, but it […]