by Brian Wolfman David Lazarus has written this piece on airline fees, which he doesn't like. He sets out the airlines' position — that some travelers don't want the add-ons, and shouldn't have to pay for them — and then rejects it, saying that some things are so basic to the air flight (for instance, […]
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We posted yesterday on how the law should deal with consumer scams directed at older people in light of evidence that older people are more susceptible to deception. After the post, Ted Mermin, consumer-law expert and head of the Public Good Law Center, pointed out that some states' consumer protection statutes authorize greater penalties against […]
According to this article by Elizabeth Norton, the Federal Trade Commission says that up to 80% of the victims of consumer scams are elderly. Why? Older people tend to look at things in a positive light: One explanation may lie in a brain region that serves as a crook detector. Called the anterior insula, this […]
Over at Credit Slips, Alan White has a great post about what he loves about the microlending non-profit, Kiva. He then discusses microlending more generally. Kiva is "a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty." "Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions," Kiva says, it "lets […]
Bad floods damage a lot of cars, and then some used car sellers want to sell those damaged cars to unsuspecting customers without disclosing the damage. This happened after Katrina (go, for instance, go here and here). Holly Petreaus, the head of Servicemember Affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has posted this warning about used […]
In addition to the exciting cert grants from the Supreme Court today in the gay marriage cases out of New York and California, don't overlook Oxford Health Plans v. Sutter, a case also taken today raising a question about the availability of class arbitration. The case is a followup to the decision in Stolt-Nielsen v. […]
by Brian Wolfman In a pay-for-delay settlement, a brand-name drug company pays a generic company that has challenged the brand-name company's patent to stay out of the market. Some early antitrust challenges to these settlements succeeded, but later court of appeals' rulings gave them a green light. Then, as we discussed in this post last July, […]
by Brian Wolfman The FDA says it violates federal law for a drug company sales rep to promote a prescription drug for an off-label use (that is, a use not approved by the FDA). So, a rep is convicted of a misdemeanor in federal district court for promoting a prescription drug for an off-label use. […]
Many media outlets have reported on this week's D.C. Circuit hearing in a challenge to President Obama's three recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. You'll recall that the President used his recess appointment power at the beginning of the year to make several appointments during pro forma Senate sessions that were specifically designed […]
by Paul Alan Levy I am dealing with a case in which a company has sued investors for defamation, alleging statements made about shenanigans of some of the individuals employed by the company. The "of and concerning" requirement under state law was federalized as a First Amendment requirement in New York Times v. Sullivan, but […]