“Biden, unlike Trump, thinks businesses shouldn’t be free to abuse consumers”

That's the title of this article by LA Times consumer reporter David Lazarus, who explains that "Rohit Chopra is expected to receive the U.S. Senate’s blessing any day now to become the new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. His job will be to restore credibility to a watchdog agency that was largely sidelined during […]

Landlord Sues Activists for Emotional Distress Damages For Telling Tenants about Eviction Moratoria

by Paul Alan Levy When Keep Pushing, a St. Louis community organization devoted to protecting the unhoused, went door-to-door to speak to tenants facing eviction orders and hand out a flyer about their rights under the CDC eviction moratorium, one of the landlords whose tenants were visited, Norwood 2020, was desperate to suppress this potential threat […]

Dep’t of Education continues defense of Trump-era student-loan rules

The Washington Post reports: The Biden administration continues to defend lawsuits against the Education Department over Trump-era policies on student loans and career training regulation. Biden’s Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has begun dismantling his predecessor’s policies. The department this week lifted a ban on colleges providing emergency grants to undocumented and international students. It has […]

Gilden article on postmorten endorsements

Andrew Gilden of Willamette has written Endorsing After Death, 63 William & Mary Law Review (2022).Here's the abstract: An endorsement is an act of giving one’s public support to a person, product, service, or cause; accordingly, it might seem impossible for someone to make an endorsement after they have died. Nevertheless, posthumous endorsements have become […]

Simkovic and Furth article proposes taxing contracts based on how much consumer attention they require to read and understand

Michael Simkovic of USC and Meirav Furth of UCLA have written Proportional Contracts, 107 Iowa Law Review, (2021). Here's the abstract: Contract law treats consumer attention as if it were unlimited. We instead view consumer attention as a scarce resource that must be conserved. We argue that consumer contracts generate negative externalities by overwhelming consumers with […]

Cox & Peterson Article: Public Compensation for Public Enforcement

Prentiss Cox of Minnesota and Christopher Lewis Peterson of Utah have written Public Compensation for Public Enforcement, 39 Yale Journal on Regulation (2022). Here's the abstract: Public enforcement actions frequently result in the distribution of money to people affected by violation of market protection laws. This “public compensation” returns billions of dollars to consumers, investors, and […]

Guest Post: Courts will Require Airlines to Provide Refunds Instead of Vouchers For Covid Related Cancellations, if the Contract Permits Such an Interpretation

By Dash Radosti As consumer-related COVID-19 litigation continues, the courts are sending airlines an important reminder: vouchers are not the same as refunds. However, there is a catch – courts are limiting this holding to the plain text of the contract between flyers and carriers.  Two recent federal cases reiterated this principle: Ide v. British Airways […]