Earlier this week, we posted a link to a John Oliver segment on robocalls. Eric J. Troutman fact checks Oliver here. Excerpt: Assertion 5: Robocall Volume Exploded After A Court Decision Overturned the FCC’s Rules Expanding the TCPA TCPAworld. com Accuracy Score: Liar liar pants on fire This was the worst part of the bit. Oliver […]
The online journal FairWarning this week reported on how lobbyists from the law firm Bracewell LLP have "specialized in helping product makers thwart rulemaking by the Consumer Product Safety Commission." One after another, industries have turned to Bracewell to fight unwanted federal standards, and they have not been disappointed. Along with the [recreational off-highway vehicle] […]
In The Conversation. Excerpt: Compared with 1962, when President Kennedy put consumer concerns on the national agenda, ordinary Americans now have far more robust rights to safety, to information, to choice and to a fair hearing. But consumer rights do not enforce themselves. Public enforcement requires funding and willing leaders. Private enforcement requires legal devices […]
That’s the title of a new report from Chris Peterson at the Consumer Federation of America. According to the executive summary: This study analyzes whether the CFPB, under the Trump Administration, is delivering on its statutory law enforcement objectives and stated commitments to take aggressive action in the area of consumer law enforcement, particularly where […]
Christopher G. Bradley of Kentucky has written The Consumer Protection Ecosystem: Law, Norms, and Technology. Here is the abstract: Consumer law provokes fierce policy debate on issues from identity theft to online privacy, from arbitration clauses and class action lawsuits to Americans’ accumulation of debt and the unsavory practices sometimes used to collect. Pervasive technology in […]
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Consumer Product Safety Commission commissioner Robert Adler and law prof Andrew Popper have written The Misuse of Product Misuse: Victim Blaming at Its Worst. Here is the abstract: This paper addresses the legal consequences that surface when a consumer uses a product in a manner not specifically intended by that product's designer or manufacturer. If […]
In the first Consumer Financial Protection Bureau oversight hearing of 2019, "Democrats repeatedly hammered Director Kathy Kraninger and GOP lawmakers for supporting recent changes at the agency." Rollcall has the story, here.
by Jeff Sovern There's been a lot of talk among law professors about the US News plan to measure faculty scholarly impact in part by citations to faculty scholarship (see here for a blog post citing to commentary). While for now US News says it will not incorporate the citation rankings into its general law […]
by Jeff Sovern The next edition of our casebook will have a lot more about robocalls. According to a letter from the attorneys general of all 50 states dated yesterday, robocalls and telemarketing calls are the top source of consumer complaints at many AG's offices. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which outlaws some robocalls, also […]

