Author: chris

Professor Mark Nadel suggests four core challenges to making consumer protection a widespread concern: First, consumer interests are diffuse; it is a collective value and must compete with other values. Second, individuals have varying levels of intensity of interest in consumer matters. Mostly, this is a low- level interest, and it can be satisfied with…

Both consumer and industry advocates argue that regulation should be “technology-neutral.” Bert-Jaap Koops has carefully explored the demand for technology-neutral regulation. He begins the inquiry by asking why technology law in particular should be technology-neutral. Koops uses the example of traffic law, where there are no calls for uniform technical rules for bicycles, cars, and…

A kind of paradox is presented by modern technophiles. In the same breath they declare that technology is neutral while touting technology as the actuator of pro-democratic political change.37 In the academic community, many have argued that technology is not neutral but rather a profound “part of our very humanity.”38 In The Whale and the…

Chairman Michael Pertschuk was one of the most qualified FTC leaders ever. Educated at Yale Law School, he clerked for a federal district judge, practiced at a firm, and then spent fifteen years on Capitol Hill. His Hill experience brought him great expertise in consumer protection, as he was chief counsel to the Senate Commerce…

DoubleClick was among the founding NAI Members.

Back in November, I posted the Department of Commerce’s Privacy Shield checklist. The next logical step was to request DOC’s procedures for removal of companies from the Privacy Shield (submitted Dec. 1). Today, DOC-International Trade Administration responded with a “no records” response. It is not clear to me what date the search took place, and…

“…fraud is endemic to modern capitalism,” so said Professor Edward Balleisen at a National History Center talk on his excellent, comprehensive, thoughtful Fraud: An American History from Barnum to Madoff. We need histories of consumer protection. Balleisen provides one such history, focusing on the idea of fraud—specifically those wrought by businesses against consumers and investors.…

The seal has been lifted on the complaint in the D-Link case. This document highlights the previously redacted portions in yellow. Yesterday (April 3, 2017), D-Link filed a motion to dismiss that includes the initial hearing transcript.

Several months after joining the Commission as director of consumer protection, David Vladeck gave an interview to the New York Times, in which he invoked the d-word – dignity – four times. In describing his role at the Commission, he said, “I think there’s a huge dignity interest wrapped up in having somebody looking at…

Practitioner friends, the Department of Commerce just released their checklist for Privacy Shield applicants. Update (4/14/17): received a “no records” response from DOC–ITA on procedures for removal from the Privacy Shield.

Professor Kenneth Rogoff’s Curse of Cash convincingly argues that we pay a high price for our commitment to cash: Over a trillion dollars of it is circulating outside of US banks, enough for every American to be holding $4,200. Eighty percent of US currency is in hundred dollar bills, yet few of us actually carry…

What can fit in 2170×60? 🙂 Thank you, jonathanhher for your Nyan Cat logo.