Recent years have brought lots of litigation about food products that are labeled as "all natural" but contain highly processed or "unnatural" ingredients. Dating back much further, the Food and drug Administration has long acknowledged the confusing and even misleading use of the term, but until today, the agency had not used its regulatory authority […]
The text of the is out — finally — and it's "worse than we thought," according to a Public Citizen analysis. Among the lowlights, according to Public Citizen, are "New Rights for Fossil Fuel Corporations to Challenge Climate Protections"; "Constraints on Food Safety Provisions"; "Opportunities for Drug Firms to Contest Medicine Purchasing and Pricing Decisions"; and expansion of the […]
Following up on its 3-part series on forced arbitration clauses, the New York Times published an editorial reiterating the conclusions of the series. The editorial concludes: Reversing the broader trend of forced arbitration, however, will require public outcry loud and long enough to stir the White House and Congress to action. Many people interviewed in […]
Hosea H. Harvey of Temple has written Opening Schumer’s Box: The Empirical Foundations of Modern Consumer Finance Disclosure Law, 48 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform (2014). Here's the abstract: This Article explores the fundamental failure of Congress’ twenty-five-year quest to utilize disclosure as the primary tool to both regulate credit card issuers and […]
Here. Here's the beginning of the story: If you're a TiVo user, your digital video recorder may be ratting you out to advertisers. In the latest example of consumer privacy being threatened by Big Data, TiVo's number-crunching subsidiary this week announced a partnership with media heavyweight Viacom that helps advertisers target TV viewers with specific […]
We've flagged before the issue of whether the Obamacare mandate that employers provide contraceptive coverage raises religious liberty problems even if an opt-out is available. The Supreme Court announced today it will decide the issue in seven consolidated cases.
The Post reports: In the first such case against a U.S. cable company, federal regulators are slapping Cox Communications with a $595,000 fine after Cox allowed hackers from Lizard Squad to penetrate its systems and steal private customer information. By posing as an IT administrator and tricking a couple of Cox employees into giving up […]
As a new Gallup survey puts it: Americans' satisfaction with the way the healthcare system works for them varies by the type of insurance they have. Satisfaction is highest among those with veterans or military health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and is lower among those with employer-paid and self-paid insurance. Americans with no health insurance are […]
This report just issued by the Centers for Disease Control explains that the percentage of people in the U.S. without health insurance has hit an all-time low: 9 percent. That's down from 11.5 percent in 2014 and 14.4 percent in 2013. In terms of real people, that's 16,300,000 more people with health insurance than in 2013.