Divided 11th Circuit Finds Browsewrap Arbitration Agreement Unenforceable

The last few years have had several decisions from state and federal courts of appeals addressing when “clickwrap” or “browsewrap” arbitration agreements are enforceable. “A clickwrap agreement requires a user to check a box or click a button to acknowledge acceptance of the agreement’s terms and conditions,” and “a browsewrap agreement contains hyperlinked terms, and […]

Teaching Consumer Law hotel deadline extended to May 19, plus former FTC commissioner Slaughter to speak

Here’s the latest announcement: The UC Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice and the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana are proud to present the fourteenth biennial international Teaching Consumer Law Conference. We are also excited to announce that this conference will constitute the first-ever North American (and Caribbean/Central American) […]

Federal Roundup judge calls class action settlement filthy and mindboggling

So Amanda Bronstad reports at Law.com in Federal Roundup Judge Refuses to Step Into ‘Mind-Boggling’ $7.25B Class Settlement. Excerpt: [Judge] Chhabria said, “You have a meeting with the judge on the day you filed it, a prearranged meeting with the judge on the day you filed it. You say it was in open court, but it […]

Education Department Finalizes New Student Loan Rules

The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” rushed through Congress last year included a number of major changes to the federal student loan system. Many of those changes required rulemaking by the Department of Education (via a negotiated rulemaking process), and, today, the Department finalized one set of rules. The rules published today (1) implement OBBBA’s […]

Upcoming conference on the future of consumer protection

On May 14 – 15 at George Mason’s Antonin Scalia Law School’s Institute for Consumer Financial Choice. More information here. Here’s some of what appears there: The Future of Consumer Financial Protection: A Two-Day FTC/ICFC Colloquium on the 5th Anniversary of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law The first afternoon’s registration begins at 11:45 and a […]

Rockefeller Photos: Prepared Foods Photos’ Abusive Copyright Enforcement Continues Under a New Name

It’s been a few months since I last published about the abusive copyright enforcement campaign operated by Prepared Food Photos,  which has been shaking down small business that have used its stock photos of food, rightly or wrongly, for damages settlements many times the market value of its copyrighted images. (Other discussions are here, here […]

Arbitrator’s decision relied on nonexistent cases, suggesting AI use

Story here. It was in Canada. I suppose it was inevitable given how many others have relied on AI-hallucinated citations without checking. I suspect it has happened in the US as well, though perhaps without anyone knowing. Of course, if arbitrators don’t write opinions but merely ask AI questions and don’t verify the cites, no […]

Register for the Teaching Consumer Conference by May 15; reserve a room in the hotel block by May 2

Here are the speakers scheduled to appear at the moment: Adelina Acuña (UC Berkeley) Craig Cowie (University of Montana) Prentiss Cox (University of Minnesota Law School) Lesley Fair (George Washington University) Jeff Gentes (Yale Law School) Ryan Marquez (University of Houston Law Center) Ted Mermin (UC Berkeley) Andy Milz (Temple University Beasley School of Law) Robert Murphy (University of Virginia School of Law) James […]

Maryland enacts anti-surveillance pricing bill

Text available here. It’s believed to be the first law banning surveillance pricing in the country (New York has a law requiring that any use of algorithmic pricing be disclosed). The law is limited to larger grocery stores and delivery services. It follows a December story by Consumer Reports that Instacart was using surveillance pricing […]