A few weeks back I blogged here about pharmaceutical manufacturer Amarin’s lawsuit aiming to allow it to market a fish-oil based drug for a use not approved by the FDA. The FDA denied approval because it concluded the drug had no demonstrated therapeutic benefits for that use, but Amarin claims a First Amendment right to […]
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…is the subject of a pending cert. petition to the Supreme Court, reports Ars Technica (here). The issue is whether law enforcement's use of cell phone data to locate a person is subject to the privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment (such as the warrant requirement). The en banc Eleventh Circuit answered no (here). The […]
A Pew report from earlier this summer investigates the use of prepaid cards — who uses them, and how, and what regulation might be needed. The report found a huge rise in use. More specifically: "The report finds that many 'unbanked' consumers, those without bank accounts, are using prepaid cards like checking accounts, underscoring the […]
In Chapman v. All American Painting, Inc., the Seventh Circuit today overruled a string of decisions, including Damasco v. Clearwire Corp., and held that a rejected offer of judgment that would have provided a plaintiff with complete relief does not moot the plaintiff's claims. The court adopted the analysis of Justice Kagan's dissenting opinion in Genesis […]
You may know that H.R. 1599, the "Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015" passed the House of Representatives a couple of weeks back and has been referred to committee in the Senate. You may also know that the bill would ban states from requiring labeling of foods containing genetically engineered (GE) ingredients, and that […]
…comes to an end tonight with his last episode hosting the show. In addition to covering issues of war and peace, politics, and the media, Jon Stewart has frequently covered issues of importance to consumers. If you're feeling nostalgic for all things Stewart (as I am today), here's a collection of some of his pieces […]
…is the question posed in today's piece from NPR's Morning Edition today. The story covers a new partnership between Yelp and ProPublica to integrate ProPublica data into Yelp doctor reviews. One of the difficulties in Yelp reviews of doctors is that they often focus on the rudeness or efficiency of the office staff rather than […]
In 2009, New York City expanded its regulation of debt collectors to include "a buyer of delinquent debt who seeks to collect such debt either directly or through the services of another by, including but not limited to, initiating or using legal processes or other means to collect or attempt to collect such debt." A law firm engaged […]
In a decision issued Monday in a case called Sanchez v. Valencia Holding Co., the California Supreme Court rejected arguments that a class-action ban in an arbitration clause, together with a few other provisions that were unfavorable to a consumer, rendered the arbitration clause unconscionable. The opinion emphasized that an arbitration clause, like any other […]
by Paul Alan Levy Several years ago, the notorious Hollywood mouthpiece Martin Singer sent a demand letter to the San Diego Reader, in reaction to its having inquired about a pending law suit, threatening to sue it in the event that any story it might write about the subject of the inquiry and further threatening […]