For years now, some have argued that if substantive due process prohibits disproportionately large punitive damages awards against major corporations, it also should stop courts from enforcing excessive contract damages against consumers. See Seana Valentine Shiffrin, Are Credit Card Late Fees Unconstitutional?, 15 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 457, 460 (2006). Two Ninth Circuit judges […]
Category Archives: Consumer Law Scholarship
Oz Shy of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Rune Stenbacka of the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration have written Customer Privacy and Competition. Here is the abstract: We analyze how different degrees of privacy protection affect industry profits, consumer welfare and total welfare. Firms earn higher profits under weak privacy protection […]
Scott Baker of Washington University in Saint Louis and Albert H. Choi of Virginia have written Crowding In: How Formal Sanctions Can Facilitate Informal Sanctions. Here's the abstract: This paper examines the interaction between legal and reputational sanctions in the design of an optimal deterrence regime, particularly in a setting where two parties have a […]
We had previously posted a link to a site from which you could purchase SMU professor Mary Spector's article, Where the FCRA Meets the FDCPA: The Impact of Unfair Collection Practices on the Credit Report, 20 Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law Policy (2013). Now it's available for free on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This […]
Jennifer L. Pomeranz of Temple's Department of Public Health has written Extending the Fantasy in the Supermarket: Where Unhealthy Food Promotions Meet Children and How the Government Can Intervene, 12 Indiana Health Law Review 117 (2012). Here's the abstract: This paper summarizes research concerning the extent of in-store marketing of foods to children and the […]
Robert L. Clarke of Bracewell & Giuliani LLP and Todd J. Zywicki of George Mason University (Zywicki notes in an "about the authors" that he is a former director of the FTC's Office of Policy Planning but omits his links to the industry) have written Payday Lending, Bank Overdraft Protection, and Fair Competition at the Consumer […]
Adam J. Levitin of Georgetown has written The Paper Chase: Securitization, Foreclosure, and the Uncertainty of Mortgage Title, 63 Duke Law Journal 637 (2013). Here is the abstract: The mortgage foreclosure crisis raises legal questions as important as its economic impact. Questions that were straightforward and uncontroversial a generation ago today threaten the stability of […]
Here, with links to purchase the articles. The issue includes remarks from a program at the 2013 AALS Annual Meeting jointly sponsored by The Sections on Poverty Law and Clinical Legal Education, entitled The Debt Crisis and the National Response: Big Changes or Tinkering at the Edges? The list includes. The articles include: "Owner Finance! No Banks Needed!" […]
Sarah Rudolph Cole of Ohio State haas written The Federalization of Consumer Arbitration: Possible Solutions. Here is 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 due process […]
Neil L. Sobol of Texas A&M has written Protecting Consumers from Zombie-Debt Collectors, forthcoming in the New Mexico Law Review. Here is the abstract: The debt-collection business is booming, led by a dramatic increase in the sale and collection of defaulted debts. Currently, debt buyers annually purchase more than $100 billion in the face value […]