David Berman has written A Critique of Consumer Advocacy Against the Restatement of the Law of Consumer Contracts, 54 Columbia Journal of Law & Social Problems. Here is the abstract: In May 2019, the American Law Institute proposed adopting a Restatement of the Law of Consumer Contracts. In it, the Restatement’s Reporters suggested a “grand […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
My colleague, Sheldon Evans of St. John's, has written Pandora's Loot Box. Here's the abstract: Virtual worlds are a frontier unlike any other. But as virtual worlds grow exponentially in the internet age, they find more overlap with the real world and the laws that govern it. One such emerging intersection is the advent of […]
by Jeff Sovern Here, though the report on liability is not very detailed and so perhaps it is less bad than I fear. But if not, as I have written in a different context, this is a terrible idea and will lead to more people getting the virus.
Dee Pridgen of Wyoming has written ALI's Restatement of the Law of Consumer Contracts: Perpetuating a Legal Fiction? 32 Loyola Consumer Law Review No. 3, (2020). Here's the abstract: The American Law Institute’s proposed Restatement of the Law of Consumer Contracts has undergone a lengthy process of drafts and discussions, but the road to completion has […]
Uri Benoliel of Ramat Gan Law School and Shmuel I. Becher of Victoria University of Wellington have written Termination Without Explanation Contracts. Here is the abstract: Firms routinely terminate their contractual relationship with consumers. During 2019-2020, for example, Facebook terminated 5.4 billion accounts that were supposedly fake; WhatsApp announced that it is terminating 2 million […]
FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra and his attorney-advisor Samuel A.A. Levine have wiritten The Case for Resurrecting the FTC Act’s Penalty Offense Authority. Here is the abstract: This article details why the Federal Trade Commission should resurrect one of the key authorities it abandoned in the 1980s: Section 5(m)(1)(B) of the FTC Act, the Penalty Offense […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. Which one do you think consumers are more likely to read? To understand? (HT: ContractsProf Blog)
Amy Widman of Rutgers has written Protecting Consumer Protection: Filling the Federal Enforcement Gap, 69 Buffalo Law Review __ (2021) (Forthcoming). Here is the abstract: Since 2014, when a first-of-its-kind empirical study looked at how public enforcers use their authority under UDAP laws, the enforcement landscape has changed. Most notably, the Trump Administration has weakened […]
On Saturday, we posted links to consumer advocates' reactions to the CFPB's new debt collection rules. Want to know how the industry sees the regulations, at least at first? Go here, to AccountsRecovery.net. Here's a hint: "there appeared to be no provisions or restrictions in the rule that should cause collection agencies to lose a […]