Consumer Protection
Who’s Benefiting from Attorney General Settlement Agreements?
June 3, 2021
Anna Berglund* Lately, when we read about state Attorneys General (AGs) in the news, we hear about them suing battleground states to try to overturn election results[1] or suing the Trump administration 138 times—almost double the number of times the Obama and Bush administrations were sued—over various policies.[2] Although state AGs are increasingly ramping…
Continue ReadingThe TRACED Act: Encouraging Developments in the Fight Against Robocalls
September 13, 2021
by Caroline Headrick*[1] In the modern age, no individual with a cell phone, indeed even a landline, is immune from the threat of scam callers. If you have paid attention to your cell phone in the past year, you have likely noticed the “Scam Likely” call identification that accompanies calls from some unknown numbers. This…
Continue ReadingThe Prison Phone Industry Exemplifies How Eliminating Private Prisons is Insufficient to Protect Inmates from Being Exploited for Profit
September 15, 2021
Anne Bolgert* Awareness of the exploitation of the private prison industry has been growing in both popular culture and political discussions. However, focus on only eliminating private prisons ignores the impact of private industry in public prisons and jails, as exemplified by the prison phone industry.
Continue ReadingWho Is the Foreseeable User?: Manufacturers’ Duty to Warn Multilingual Users
January 11, 2022
by Abbie Maier* More than 350 languages are spoken in United States homes. In certain U.S. cities, Spanish speakers represent the majority of the population. In New York City and Houston, almost half of the people speak a language other than English at home, and in Los Angeles, the majority of the population speak languages…
Continue ReadingLaufer Gives ADA Testers a Second Green Light
January 11, 2023
By Matthew Schmitz ***Disability communities differ on whether they prefer person-first (“person with a disability”) or identity-first (“disabled person”) language.[1] Here, I have opted for identity-first language but want to acknowledge that each member of the disability community may have a different preference. The First Circuit bucked the trend of its sister circuits on a…
Continue ReadingCrypto and the Climate Crisis
March 8, 2023
Cryptocurrency mining has done more than shake up financial industries – it has had an enormous impact on climate change as well. In this blog, JLI Note & Comment Editor Mallory Harrington breaks down how cryptocurrencies impact the environment and potential solutions to these problems.
Continue ReadingLevel Setting Web Accessibility Expectations
December 13, 2023
The question of whether a business must make its website accessible or not can be answered, like most legal questions, with “it depends.” Nonetheless, businesses who fail to make their website accessible are at risk for suit alleging an ADA Title III violation.
Continue ReadingTaking Out the Trash: Is Biden’s Plan for Eliminating Junk Fees an Effective One?
January 2, 2024
From Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets to ATM fees, consumers increasingly encounter junk fees. Lead Managing Editor Evelyn Doran explains and evaluates a recently proposed DOL rule requiring junk fee disclosures by financial advisors.
Continue ReadingEducational Integrity in Corporate Childcare: Addressing Poor Regulatory Oversight through Head Start’s Compliance Model
March 20, 2024
Educational Integrity in Corporate Childcare: Addressing Poor Regulatory Oversight through Head Start’s Compliance Model By: Anthony Alas $60.4 billion. That’s the annual revenue from childcare in the private sector.[1] Children have become piles of profit for corporations, and the American family demands its dividends. As long as childcare remains in corporate hands,[2] childcare corporations must…
Continue ReadingThe Texas Two Step: Double Standards of Bankruptcy Code Abuse
April 12, 2024
By: Jacqueline Brant* The Texas Two Step: Double Standards of Bankruptcy Code Abuse For decades, there has been a stigma attached to individuals seeking to discharge their debt through filing bankruptcy. The purpose of bankruptcy is to “give a ‘fresh start’ to honest but unfortunate debtors by providing them with an opportunity to reorganize…
Continue ReadingThe Tragic Fallout of Opioid Regulations on Individuals with Chronic Pain
May 6, 2024
By: Remy Bell* “Ms. Steinberg, I hate to make you get up off your cot,” Senator Johnny Isakson said sympathetically.[1] Ms. Steinberg—adding some levity to the severity of her condition, which required her to lay down until it was her turn to testify—chuckled and replied, “That’s okay: I’m used to going back and forth.”[2] During…
Continue ReadingOpt-out Privacy Policy Worsens Algorithmic Price Discrimination: The Case of the American Privacy Rights Act
June 1, 2024
By: Cole Edick* In a data-driven world, data governance has serious implications for social inequality—from civil rights to consumer protection.[1] But the current approach to data governance in the United States may overemphasize individual privacy choice at the cost of collective approaches to inequality that better mitigate the harms inherent in the datafication of…
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