For years now, some have argued that if substantive due process prohibits disproportionately large punitive damages awards against major corporations, it also should stop courts from enforcing excessive contract damages against consumers. See Seana Valentine Shiffrin, Are Credit Card Late Fees Unconstitutional?, 15 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 457, 460 (2006). Two Ninth Circuit judges […]
by Brian Wolfman According to this Associated Press story, in 2012, the Vermont Attorney General sued a company called Vermints under Vermont’s consumer protection law alleging that Vermints had mislabeled its mints “Vermont’s All-Natural Mints” (my emphasis). What was the AG’s beef with the label? According to the suit, the company is Massachusetts-based and the […]
One might have expected this, but here’s a study to back it up: a college applicant’s social network use can play a significant role in admissions. According to a study by Kaplan (as reported in this New York Times article from November), almost a third of 381 college admission officers surveyed said they “visited an […]
I recently discussed the Ninth Circuit appeal in Cabral v. Supple, a fascinating case about consumer fraud class actions, infomercials, snake oil, the placebo effect, and behavioral economics. Our opening brief was filed last week. Yesterday, three organizations filed amicus briefs supporting us: AARP focused on the effect of marketing techniques aimed at making false health-benefit claims to […]
We've covered extensively the law and policy fight against obesity and noted that there's been some (barely) measurable progress recently. That's the theme of this article from The Economist. Here's an excerpt: The overweight American, slurping a bucket of soda in his car, is an international stereotype. Thankfully, fewer Americans fit the mould. Obesity rates among […]
Do you think that some food marketers (mis)label junky foods to try to make them seem healthy? Jennifer Pomeranz does, and she's written A Comprehensive Strategy to Overhaul FDA Authority for Misleading Food Labels to explain how, in her view, the Food and Drug Administration can make food labels less misleading, consistent with the First […]
We've posted here and here about how consumers can try to avoid harm from the Target (and similar) data breaches. Perhaps the best medicine is putting a security freeze on your credit report. Here, Michelle Singletary describes that process in some detail.
Here. An excerpt: In late March, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—the consumer watchdog agency dreamt up by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—issued new, voluntary guidelines aimed at ensuring car dealerships are not illegally ripping off minorities. Since then, 13 Senate Democrats, including Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.); and 22 House Dems, including Reps. […]
Those are the subjects of Cost-Benefit Analysis of Financial Regulation: Case Studies and Implications, by law professor John Coates. Here is the abstract: Some members of Congress, the D.C. Circuit, and legal academia are promoting a particular, abstract form of cost-benefit analysis for financial regulation: judicially enforced quantification. How would CBA work in practice, if […]
Perhaps sign-ups on the Affordable Care Act's exchanges are lagging, but, as explained in this article by Sabrina Tavernise, in states that have accepted the Act's medicaid expansion, the Act is providing health insurance to many people who previously lacked it. "In West Virginia," for example, "where the Democratic governor agreed to expand Medicaid eligibility, the […]