Oren Bar-Gill of Harvard and Omri Ben-Shahar of Chicago have written Optimal Defaults in Consumer Markets. Here's the abstract: The design of default provisions in consumer contracts involves an aspect that does not normally arise in other contexts. Unlike commercial parties, consumers have only limited information about the content of the default rule and how […]
Category Archives: Consumer Law Scholarship
Amy Schmitz of Missouri has written Remedy Realities in Business-to-Consumer Contracting, 58 Arizona Law Review 213 (2016). Here is the abstract: Professor Jean Braucher greatly contributed to the exploration of consumer and contract law by questioning how the law operates in the real world and highlighting the importance of “law in action.” In recognition of that […]
Chris Jay Hoofnagle of Berkeley has written Privacy and Security Through the Lens of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics. Here's the abstract: At the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), all privacy and security matters are assigned to a consumer protection economist from the agency’s Bureau of Economics (BE). The BE is an important yet […]
Kevin M. McDonald of VW Credit, Inc. has written Who's Policing the Financial Cop on the Beat? A Call for Judicial Review of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Non-Legislative Rules, 35 Review of Banking and Financial Law, 224 (2015-2016). Here's the abstract: This law review article addresses administrative power in the context of financial services. The Dodd-Frank Act […]
Here. In the Maryland Bar Journal. And here is the abstract: This article examines current trends in debt buyer litigation, including a review of recent regulatory actions and the impact of debt buyer lawsuits on individual consumers and on small claims courts. The article calls for a ban on the sale of consumer junk debt […]
Christopher Lewis Peterson of Utah has written Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Law Enforcement: An Empirical Review, forthcoming in the Tulane Law Review. Here's the abstract: In the aftermath of the U.S. financial crisis, Congress created a new federal agency — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — with the goal of fashioning a more just […]
Aaron Perzanowski of Case Western Reserve and Chris Jay Hoofnagle of Berkeley have written What We Buy When We 'Buy Now', 165 University of Pennsylvania Law Review (Forthcoming 2017), Here's the abstract: Retailers such as Apple and Amazon market digital media to consumers using the familiar language of product ownership, including phrases like “buy now,” […]
Aditi Bagchi of Fordham has written At the Limits of Adjudication: Standard Terms in Consumer Contracts in Comparative Contract Law (eds. DiMatteo & Hogg, (UP, 2015). Here is the abstract: This chapter first identifies three features of standard form contracts that challenge the classical theory of contract: standard terms lack of salience, consumers lack practical […]
Sarah Rudolph Cole has written The Federalization of Consumer Arbitration: Possible Solutions, University of Chicago Legal Forum No. 271. Here's the abstract: Over the past fifteen to twenty years, businesses dramatically increased the use of arbitration clauses in contracts with consumers. Although commentators criticize the use of arbitration to resolve consumer disputes because arbitration lacks the […]
Brian D. Galle of Georgetown has written The Problem of Intra-Personal Cost. Here is the abstract: “Externalities”, or harms to others, provide a standard justification for government intervention in the private market. There is less agreement over whether government is justified in correcting “internalities,” or harms to self the self is largely powerless to avoid. […]