by Paul Alan Levy Yesterday I discussed a lawsuit filed by Amazon seeking relief against over a thousand anonymous individuals who offered to sell their services posting phony positive reviews about products available for sale on Amazon. The theory of Amazon's complaint is that the users are all registered Amazon users and hence forbidden from […]
As regulators and policymakers consider how to respond to VW's emissions scandal — in which the company programmed its vehicles to emit less during tests than under normal conditions (for our prior discussions, see here, here, and here) — one angle they might consider for future reform is copyright. Sen. Ron Wyden opined last week […]
Christine Riefa of Brunel and Christiana Markou of the European University Cyprus have written Online Marketing: Advertisers Know You are a Dog on the Internet!, in Savin, Trzaskowski (Eds) Research Handbook on EU Internet Law (Edward Elgar 2014) 383-410. Here's the abstract: This piece explores the regulation of online marketing. The Internet has enabled advertisers […]
In wake of last week's announcement by New York restaurateur Danny Meyer that he would be eliminating tipping at his restaurants (and instead building a service charge into the menu prices), dueling op-eds in the Times and Post over the past week debate the merits of tipping as a custom and means of paying workers. In the Times, Saru […]
by Paul Alan Levy The problem of false reviews bedevils web sites that invite customer reviews as a basis for other consumers to judge goods and services available to them on the market. Disgruntled merchants can be counted on bring defamation claims against false negative reviewers, but few merchants feel they have any incentive to […]
by Jeff Sovern Did Congress give the CFPB the power to ban or regulate arbitration clauses in consumer financial contracts? Not according to a Pepper Hamilton partner, according to a pair of recent reports. Here's an excerpt from a piece at credit.com. The CFPB’s Arbitration Ban Could Be the Next Supreme Court Showdown: “It comes down […]
Michael S. Barr of Michigan has written Mandatory Arbitration in Consumer Finance and Investor Contracts, 11 New York University Journal of Law and Business (2015). Here is the abstract: Mandatory pre-dispute arbitration clauses are pervasive in consumer financial and investor contracts — for credit cards, bank accounts, auto loans, broker-dealer services, and many others. These […]
… reports fivethirtyeight.com. For instance: During the strong labor market of the mid-1990s, only 1 in 5 minimum-wage workers was still earning minimum wage a year later. Today, that number is nearly 1 in 3, according to my analysis of government survey data. There has been a similar rise in the number of people staying […]
Yes, very good, with the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives, says reporter Joe Nocera in this NY Times op-ed.
Today's LA Times has another story on the Fiat-Chrysler stratagem of offering customers a "friends and family" discount in return for which consumers sign away their right to sue the automaker by agreeing to arbitration. (We had a short blog entry on the subject last week.) The story points out that most consumers can get […]