The WSJ recently published Companies Seek to Sway Trump Administration on FTC Choice (behind pay wall) about who the next FTC chair will be. Google's rivals want Utah AG Sean Reyes, while acting chair Maureen Ohlhausen remains a possibility. Commissioner Ohlhausen is seen as more accommodating to Google because of an earlier antitrust decision in which she […]
Category Archives: Consumer Law Scholarship
Todd J. Zywicki of George Mason has written Market-Reinforcing versus Market-Replacing Consumer Finance Regulation in Hester Peirce and Benjamin Klutsey, eds., Reframing Financial Regulation: Enhancing Stability and Protecting Consumers, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, pp. 319-341, 2016. Here's the abstract: The aftermath of the financial crisis has seen the formation of several new banking regulators […]
James C. Cooper of George Mason and Joanna Shepherd of Emory have written State Consumer Protection Acts: An Economic and Empirical Analysis. Here's the abstract: Consumer protection acts (CPAs) developed with the goal to protect American consumers from fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices. Initially, Congress, through the FTC Act, sought to define and deter […]
Omri Ben-Shahar and Lior Strahilevitz, both of Chicago, have written an introduction to a symposium, Contracting Over Privacy: Introduction, 43 Journal of Legal Studies, No. S2, 2016. Here's the abstract: This short essay introduces papers presented at the symposium Contracting over Privacy, which took place at the Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics at the University of […]
James C. Cooper and Joshua D. Wright, both of George Mason have written The Missing Role of Economics in FTC Privacy Policy, Cambridge Handbook of Consumer Privacy, Jules Polonetsky, Evan Selinger & Omer Tene, eds., Cambridge University Press (2017), Forthcoming. Here's the abstract: The FTC has been in the privacy game for almost twenty years. In […]
Pamela Foohey of Indiana has written Calling on the CFPB for Help: Telling Stories and Consumer Protection, 80 Law & Contemporary Problems (Forthcoming). Here is the abstract: Since it began operating in 2011, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has handled more than a million complaints regarding consumer financial product and services. Beginning in June 2015, […]
Christopher R. Drahozal of Kansas has written The Issue Preclusive Effect of Arbitration Awards, Proceedings of the NYU 69th Annual Conference on Labor: Mediation and Arbitration of Employment and Consumer Disputes, Forthcoming. Here's the abstract: Courts in the United States have two primary means (in addition to individual adjudication) by which to resolve disputes in […]
Robert H. Klonoff of Lewis & Clark has written Class Actions Part II: A Respite from the Decline. Here is the abstract: In a 2013 article, I explained that the Supreme Court and federal circuits had cut back significantly on plaintiffs' ability to bring class actions. As I explain in the present article, that trend […]
Former FTC Commissioner Joshua D. Wright of George Mason has written Federalism and the Rise of State Consumer Protection Law in the United States, in The Law and Economics of Federalism, Jonathan Klick, ed., Edward Elgar Publishing, Forthcoming. Here's the abstract: Starting in the 1960s, individual states began to adopt and enforce Consumer Protection Acts […]
Here. The whole piece is worth reading, but here's an excerpt: Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign was filled with a lot of bold talk about “draining the swamp” and fighting against lobbyists. He attacked Hillary Clinton for her supposed cozy relationship with banks, and talked about how he’d stand up to Wall Street on behalf of the […]

