by Paul Alan Levy Anonymous Internet users based in Tanzania are fighting a subpoena from Wineland-Thomson Adventures, a company that runs super-luxury safaris and climbs on Mount Kilimanjaro under the name Thomson Safaris, seeking to identify the authors of a web site that takes Thomson to task over allegations of brutal attacks on Masai villagers […]
For the Journal of Consumer Policy. More here.
by Brian Wolfman In recent years, July 1 has been the crisis date for the federal program that subsidizes student loans. The loans are subsidized in a number of ways, principally by having below-market interest rates. Unless Congress acts, on July 1, the current 3.4% interest rate will double to 6.8%. A reform idea would […]
by Paul Alan Levy A useful ruling last week from the federal court in Northern Indiana dismissed its face a complaint brought by an obscure company that makes “Clean Slate” software, which can be used to wipe all user activity off a computer network. The plaintiff complained that Warner Brothers' The Dark Knight Rises showed […]
Off-label [that is, non-FDA approved] drug use is controversial. Some drug sellers, doctors, and patients think that cautious unapproved drug use advances medical science while helping to mitigate and cure disease, while some consumer advocates thinks it kills and injures patients. Law professors Fazel Kahn and Justin Holloway have written "Verify, then Trust: How to […]
A federal judge in Kentucky approved last week a $40 million class-action settlement between Skechers USA Inc. and consumers who bought Skechers' toning shoes from August 2008 – August 2012. The Skechers' ads made unfounded claims that the shoes would help people lose weight and strengthen muscles. Consumers with approved claims will be paid up […]
by Jeff Sovern When mobile phones have GPS devices, as many smart phones do, mobile phone providers can track their customers wherever they take their phones (providers can also track phones lacking a GPS, but less precisely). For an example, go here to see how Deutsche Telefon recorded the location of one of its customers for […]
As explained in this New Republic essay by Si Lazarus, a new challenge to the Affordable Care Act is nearly as threatening to its viability as the now-rejected challenge to its constitutionality. Here's an excerpt: After the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act last June, Senator Jim DeMint and Representative Michele Bachmann wrote Republican […]
That's the name of this article by law professor Linda Mullenix. Here's the abstract: Professor Redish has both anchored the modern class action in American political and constitutional theory, raising serious questions about the legitimacy of this procedural device for resolving aggregate claims. Professor Redish’s major insight is his argument that the courts and litigants […]
That's the name of this article by law professors Myriam Gilles and Anthony Sebok. Here's the abstract: Class actions are in decline, while arbitration is ascendant. This raises the question: will plaintiffs’ lawyers skilled in bringing small-value, large-scale litigation – the typical consumer, employment, and antitrust claims that have made up the bulk of class […]