Chapter 11. Consumer Protection. [Note]
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Commercial Nuisance: a Theory of Consumer Protection
Commercial Nuisance: A Theory of Consumer Protection The fraudulent practices of some merchants, since they deprive the poor of much of their income, not only offend law and ethics but also impede efforts to alleviate the poverty upon which those practices depend.1 In part, the solution to this problem will depend on the remedies available in the courts. Regulatory statutes have been passed in increasing numbers, 2 and recent judicial expansion of the uncon- scionability doctrine indicates that judge-made law also may be in- creasingly important in affording relief.8 But because courts cannot act until cases are before them, expansion of substantive doctrine is unlikely to solve the problem, for the fraud which characterizes many retail transactions in poverty areas is largely dependent on the buyers' ignorance of their legal rights and the lack of available counsel. Fur- ther, buyers rarely have the financial resources to bring or defend an action. The sums at stake are low in comparison to the expenses of litigation, and since the fruit of victory is no more than rescission of the contract, success will not provide a lawyer's compensation. As a result, garnishment and attachment are frequently utilized to satisfy the amounts purportedly due.4 Every state has criminal penalties intended to regulate commercial transactions in some measure, but hesitancy to initiate criminal action 1 Such practices include selling reconditioned items as new, substituting low quality goods on delivery for those agreed upon in the store, and levying illegal credit charges. Other more subtle devices are written into the contract. -
Competition and Consumer Protection Implications of Algorithms, Artificial
Competition and Consumer Protection Implications of Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, and Predictive Analytics Remarks at Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century November 14, 2018 D. Bruce Hoffman Director, Bureau of Competition, U.S. Federal Trade Commission Introduction Good morning and welcome to the seventh FTC hearing on competition and consumer protection in the 21st century. This is an incredibly important series of events, and we have fantastic panelists who have important and interesting things to say. It will help us create a record that will be useful for a long time to come. Let me start by giving a couple of disclaimers. First, everything I say today in this brief introductory speech will be only my personal remarks, not necessarily the views of the Federal Trade Commission or any Commissioner. I also want to thank Howard Law School for hosting this event—it’s a pleasure to be here. The other disclaimer I need to give is that this event is being photographed and webcast. It will be posted to the FTC website, and by participating in this event, you consent to these terms. I thought I would start by talking briefly about why we are holding hearings on competition and consumer protection in the 21st century, and why we are doing a hearing on artificial intelligence. I know Professor Gavil mentioned this yesterday, and I’d like to echo the important educational purpose of these hearings. At the Federal Trade Commission, we are very much in study and learning mode on the issue of antitrust and its application to modern and developing technologies. -
The Great Divergence the Princeton Economic History
THE GREAT DIVERGENCE THE PRINCETON ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE WESTERN WORLD Joel Mokyr, Editor Growth in a Traditional Society: The French Countryside, 1450–1815, by Philip T. Hoffman The Vanishing Irish: Households, Migration, and the Rural Economy in Ireland, 1850–1914, by Timothy W. Guinnane Black ’47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy, and Memory, by Cormac k Gráda The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy, by Kenneth Pomeranz THE GREAT DIVERGENCE CHINA, EUROPE, AND THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD ECONOMY Kenneth Pomeranz PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD COPYRIGHT 2000 BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHED BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 41 WILLIAM STREET, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540 IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 3 MARKET PLACE, WOODSTOCK, OXFORDSHIRE OX20 1SY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA POMERANZ, KENNETH THE GREAT DIVERGENCE : CHINA, EUROPE, AND THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD ECONOMY / KENNETH POMERANZ. P. CM. — (THE PRINCETON ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE WESTERN WORLD) INCLUDES BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES AND INDEX. ISBN 0-691-00543-5 (CL : ALK. PAPER) 1. EUROPE—ECONOMIC CONDITIONS—18TH CENTURY. 2. EUROPE—ECONOMIC CONDITIONS—19TH CENTURY. 3. CHINA— ECONOMIC CONDITIONS—1644–1912. 4. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT—HISTORY. 5. COMPARATIVE ECONOMICS. I. TITLE. II. SERIES. HC240.P5965 2000 337—DC21 99-27681 THIS BOOK HAS BEEN COMPOSED IN TIMES ROMAN THE PAPER USED IN THIS PUBLICATION MEETS THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OF ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) (PERMANENCE OF PAPER) WWW.PUP.PRINCETON.EDU PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 3579108642 Disclaimer: Some images in the original version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. -
The First Great Divergence
Mellon-Sawyer Seminar 2007/8 “The first great divergence: China and Europe, 500-800 CE” Organized by Ian Morris, Walter Scheidel, and Mark Lewis, Departments of Classics and History, Stanford University Sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Six hundred years ago China was the most powerful state on earth. The eunuch admiral Zheng He spent 1406 cruising around the Indian Ocean at the head of 30,000 crew in a fleet of giant Chinese “treasure ships,” trading, collecting tribute, and setting up and deposing client kings at will. By 1433, Chinese ships were visiting Arabia, Ethiopia, and Kenya, and probably Australia too. By any reasonable estimate, China seemed set to become the world’s first global power. But that did not happen. Anti-trade Confucian factions won out in struggles at the Ming court, and long-distance voyages were banned. By 1467, most records of Zheng’s voyages were lost or destroyed. Half a millennium later, far from dominating as the world, China seemed – at least to western observers – to be going backward. When a dispute over opium trading escalated uncontrollably in 1839, the British sent a small naval force to claim damages from the governor of Canton. A single ironclad gunboat blasted its way through all the Chinese defenses, and in 1842, with the Grand Canal under British control, Nanjing facing plunder, and famine closing in on Beijing, China conceded British demands for open ports and the right to send missionaries deep into the country. This defeat triggered crises that brought China to the verge of partition. One Hong Xiuquan, a failed civil service candidate who developed his own bizarre version of Christianity out of the teachings of the missionaries at Canton, led the massive Taiping Rebellion to install a Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace. -
Behavioral Law & Economics and Consumer Financ
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Behavioral Economics Symposium Panel 2: Behavioral Law & Economics and Consumer Financial Protection The Role of Behavioral Economics in Consumer Protection Policy: Reflections of a Consumer Economist Janis K. Pappalardo, Ph.D.1 Assistant Director, Division of Consumer Protection Bureau of Economics, Federal Trade Commission Washington, DC September 19, 2019 1 The views expressed are those of the author and may not reflect the views of the Federal Trade Commission or any individual Commissioner. This statement draws from my prior work. I thank Jason Chen and Scott Syms for research assistance and many colleagues who have contributed to my understanding of this topic over the years, but I am responsible for any errors. Background on my Perspective Let me tell you a bit about my experience to shed light on my perspective. I joined the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics, Division of Consumer Protection in 1986 immediately after obtaining a Ph.D. from Cornell University with a major field in consumer economics and minor fields in industrial organization and statistics. As a staff economist, I analyzed consumer protection legal and policy matters related to unfair or deceptive practices, provided expert declarations for litigation, and conducted research on information regulation. I have published work in the American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Antitrust Law Journal, Review of Industrial Organization, and Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, from which I received two outstanding article awards. I serve on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Affairs and the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, and I am co-editing a symposium on the economics of consumer protection for Economic Inquiry. -
Model Family Financial Protection Act
Model Family Financial Protection Act By Robert J. Hobbs, April Kuehnhoff, and Chi Chi Wu National Consumer Law Center® Revised December 2020 © Copyright 2020, National Consumer Law Center, Inc. All rights reserved. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Robert J. Hobbs has specialized in consumer credit issues, with particular attention to fair debt collection practices, in his more than 30 years at the National Consumer Law Center, Inc. (NCLC). He writes NCLC’s popular treatise Fair Debt Collection (6th Ed.) and The Practice of Consumer Law (2nd Ed. 2006); he edited NCLC’s annual volumes, Consumer Law Pleadings. He testified on and proposed amendments adopted as part of ABOUT THE NATIONAL the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Truth in Lending Act, and participated in the drafting of NCLC's CONSUMER LAW CENTER Model Consumer Credit Code (1974). He was the designated consumer representative in two Federal Trade Since 1969, the nonprofit Commission rulemakings to regulate creditor remedies and National Consumer Law Center® to preserve consumers' claims and defenses. He is an (NCLC®) has used its expertise NCLC Senior Fellow, former Deputy Director of NCLC; a in consumer law and energy former member of the Consumer Advisory Council to the Federal Reserve Board; a founder, former Director and policy to work for consumer Treasurer of the National Association of Consumer justice and economic security Advocates, Inc.; and a graduate of Vanderbilt University for low-income and other and of the Vanderbilt School of Law. disadvantaged people, in the April Kuehnhoff is a staff attorney at the National United States. NCLC’s expertise Consumer Law Center whose focus includes fair debt includes policy analysis and collection. -
Consumer Choice: the Rp Actical Reason for Both Antitrust and Consumer Protection Law Neil W
Loyola Consumer Law Review Volume 10 | Issue 1 Article 11 1998 Consumer Choice: The rP actical Reason for Both Antitrust and Consumer Protection Law Neil W. Averitt Attorney, Office ofo P licy & Evaluation, Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission Robert H. Lande Prof., University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD Follow this and additional works at: http://lawecommons.luc.edu/lclr Part of the Consumer Protection Law Commons Recommended Citation Neil W. Averitt & Robert H. Lande Consumer Choice: The Practical Reason for Both Antitrust and Consumer Protection Law, 10 Loy. Consumer L. Rev. 44 (1998). Available at: http://lawecommons.luc.edu/lclr/vol10/iss1/11 This Feature Article is brought to you for free and open access by LAW eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Loyola Consumer Law Review by an authorized administrator of LAW eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FEATURE ARTICLES Consumer Choice: The Practical Reason for Both Antitrust and Consumer Protection Law Neil W. Averitt, B.A. Harvard, M.Sc. London School of Economics, J.D. By Neil W. Averitt and Robert H. Lande Harvard, is an attorney in the Office of Policy & Evaluation, Bureau of Competi- tion, Federal Trade Commission. Mr. Averitt can be reached at <[email protected]>. This article is about the relationship between Robert H. Lande, B.A. Northwestern, antitrust and consumer protection law. Its M.P.P. Harvard, J.D. Harvard, is Professor purpose is to define each area of law, to delin- of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law. Mr. Lande can be reached at eate the boundary between them, to show how <[email protected]>. -
The Basic Economics of Internet Infrastructure
Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 34, Number 2—Spring 2020—Pages 192–214 The Basic Economics of Internet Infrastructure Shane Greenstein his internet barely existed in a commercial sense 25 years ago. In the mid- 1990s, when the data packets travelled to users over dial-up, the main internet T traffic consisted of email, file transfer, and a few web applications. For such content, users typically could tolerate delays. Of course, the internet today is a vast and interconnected system of software applications and computing devices, which society uses to exchange information and services to support business, shopping, and leisure. Not only does data traffic for streaming, video, and gaming applications comprise the majority of traffic for internet service providers and reach users primarily through broadband lines, but typically those users would not tolerate delays in these applica- tions (for usage statistics, see Nevo, Turner, and Williams 2016; McManus et al. 2018; Huston 2017). In recent years, the rise of smartphones and Wi-Fi access has supported growth of an enormous range of new businesses in the “sharing economy” (like, Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb), in mobile information services (like, social media, ticketing, and messaging), and in many other applications. More than 80 percent of US households own at least one smartphone, rising from virtually zero in 2007 (available at the Pew Research Center 2019 Mobile Fact Sheet). More than 86 percent of homes with access to broadband internet employ some form of Wi-Fi for accessing applications (Internet and Television Association 2018). It seems likely that standard procedures for GDP accounting underestimate the output of the internet, including the output affiliated with “free” goods and the restructuring of economic activity wrought by changes in the composition of firms who use advertising (for discussion, see Nakamura, Samuels, and Soloveichik ■ Shane Greenstein is the Martin Marshall Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts. -
Unemployment Insurance Fraud Consumer Protection Guide September 21, 2020
U.S. Department of Justice National Unemployment Insurance Fraud Task Force Unemployment Insurance Fraud Consumer Protection Guide September 21, 2020 This guide provides information and resources for individuals on how to protect themselves from unemployment insurance fraud and steps they can take if they suspect they have had their identity exploited by criminals. The U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Department of Labor–Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, Internal Revenue Service–Criminal Investigation, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Social Security Administration–Office of the Inspector General, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security–Office of Inspector General, coordinating with the U.S. Department of Justice, are investigating numerous fraud schemes targeting the unemployment insurance (UI) programs of various state workforce agencies (SWAs) across the United States. Fraudsters, some of which are transnational criminal organizations, are using the stolen identities of U.S. citizens to open accounts and file fraudulent claims for UI benefits, exploiting the unprecedented expansion of these benefits provided in response to economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of the National UI Fraud Task Force are working with SWAs, financial institutions, and other law enforcement partners across the country to fight this type of fraud, and consumers should be vigilant in light of this threat and take appropriate steps to safeguard themselves. This guide -
Critical Guide to Mill's on Liberty
This page intentionally left blank MILL’S ON LIBERTY John Stuart Mill’s essay On Liberty, published in 1859, has had a powerful impact on philosophical and political debates ever since its first appearance. This volume of newly commissioned essays covers the whole range of problems raised in and by the essay, including the concept of liberty, the toleration of diversity, freedom of expression, the value of allowing “experiments in living,” the basis of individual liberty, multiculturalism, and the claims of minority cultural groups. Mill’s views have been fiercely contested, and they are at the center of many contemporary debates. The essays are by leading scholars, who systematically and eloquently explore Mill’s views from various per spectives. The volume will appeal to a wide range of readers including those interested in political philosophy and the history of ideas. c. l. ten is Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Singapore. His publications include Was Mill a Liberal? (2004) and Multiculturalism and the Value of Diversity (2004). cambridge critical guides Volumes published in the series thus far: Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit edited by dean moyar and michael quante Mill’s On Liberty edited by c. l. ten MILL’S On Liberty A Critical Guide edited by C. L. TEN National University of Singapore CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521873567 © Cambridge University Press 2008 This publication is in copyright. -
Employment Situation of Veterans — 2020
For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Thursday, March 18, 2021 USDL-21-0438 Technical information: (202) 691-6378 • [email protected] • www.bls.gov/cps Media contact: (202) 691-5902 • [email protected] EMPLOYMENT SITUATION OF VETERANS — 2020 The unemployment rate for veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces at any time since September 2001—a group referred to as Gulf War-era II veterans—rose to 7.3 percent in 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The jobless rate for all veterans increased to 6.5 percent in 2020. These increases reflect the effect of the coronavirus (COVID- 19) pandemic on the labor market. In August 2020, 40 percent of Gulf War-era II veterans had a service-connected disability, compared with 26 percent of all veterans. This information was obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 eligible households that provides data on employment, unemployment, and persons not in the labor force in the United States. Data about veterans are collected monthly in the CPS; these monthly data are the source of the 2020 annual averages presented in this news release. In August 2020, a supplement to the CPS collected additional information about veterans on topics such as service-connected disability and veterans' current or past Reserve or National Guard membership. Information from the supplement is also presented in this news release. The supplement was co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service. -
What Is Unemployment Insurance (Ui)? Am I Eligible? How Do I Apply?
WHAT IS UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE (UI)? Unemployment Insurance is a joint state-federal program that provides cash benefits to eligible workers. Each state administers UI Benefits are Administered by States a separate UI program, but all states follow the same guidelines established by federal law. To find information about your state’s program, including eligibility, benefits, Unemployment insurance payments (benefits) are intended to and application information, visit our provide temporary financial assistance to unemployed workers Unemployment Insurance Service who are unemployed through no fault of their own. Each state Locator. sets its own additional requirements for eligibility, benefit amounts, and length of time benefits can be paid. Generally, benefits are based on a percentage of your earnings over a recent 52-week period, and each state sets a maximum amount. Benefits are subject to federal and most state income taxes and must be reported on your income tax return. You may choose to have the tax withheld from your payment. AM I ELIGIBLE? Each state sets its own guidelines for eligibility for UI benefits, but you usually qualify if you: Are unemployed through no fault of your own. In most states, this means you have to have separated from your last job due to a lack of available work. Meet work and wage requirements. You must meet your state’s requirements for wages earned or time worked during an established period of time referred to as a "base period." (In most states, this is usually the first four out of the last five completed calendar quarters prior to the time that your claim is filed.) Meet any additional state requirements.