Giuseppe Dari‐Mattiacci of Amsterdam Law School; Amsterdam Business School; and the Tinbergen Institute and Florencia Marotta-Wurgler of NYU have written Learning in Standard Form Contracts: Theory and Evidence. Here is the abstract: We explore learning and change in standard form contracts. We hypothesize that drafters (sellers) are more likely to revise the terms they offer when […]
by Jeff Sovern Level Playing Field is reporting that companies include in their arbitration clauses provisions that AAA, their arbitration service, has informed them have to be waived, meaning AAA won't enforce them. The clauses in question may deter consumers, who don't know that they won't be enforced, from bringing the arbitration at all. For […]
Taylor A. Begley of Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis and Amiyatosh Purnanandam of Ross School of Business, University of Michigan have written Color and Credit: Race, Regulation, and the Quality of Financial Services. Here is the abstract: The incidence of mis-selling, fraud, and poor customer service by retail banks is significantly higher in markets […]
Today, the National Consumer Law Center released an updated version of its very helpful and informative 50-state UDAP survey. The page with links to the full report, executive summary, key recommendations, maps, charts, and appendices is available here. The press release is available here. Since the last survey, which was conducted in 2009, NCLC finds […]
The New York Times carried a story this weekend about a disturbing lawsuit that will be argued in the California Court of Appeal later this month. Olivia de Havilland sued FX for running the docudrama “Feud,” a fictionalized account of the feud between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis; a character portraying deHavilland has a modest […]
Here. Excerpt: “There hasn’t been a lot that has been methodical about this presidency, but I do think Trump is systematically dismantling consumer protections,” said Mark Totten, a Michigan State University law professor who studies the enforcement of consumer protection laws and a 2014 Democratic candidate for Michigan attorney general. The new direction affects agencies […]
That's the title of this article by Mike Konzcal. Then, read this article in The Hill explaining that "[t]he battle pits moderate Democrats up for reelection this year in states such as Missouri, West Virginia, North Dakota and Montana against Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other progressives, and comes as the party braces for primary fights between the left and […]
The ACLU recently released a report on the criminalization of private debt: An estimated 77 million Americans—one in three adults—have a debt that has been turned over to a private collection agency. Thousands of these debtors are arrested and jailed each year because they owe money. Millions more are threatened with jail. The debts owed […]
by Stephen Gardner On February 27, the Northern District of California issued an opinion on a motion to dismiss in Becerra v. The Coca-Cola Company. The court got the law right, but then ruled based on incorrect conclusions on disputed facts. There are two parts to the opinion. First, the court analyzed Coke’s various attempts to avoid […]
National banks have long argued for broad preemption of state laws that would otherwise apply to their activities, and their federal regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has often gone along. In an important decision issued Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that preemption is more limited than the banks […]