Consumer Law eJournal最新文献

{"title":"Driving Into a Dead End: Why IDR Has Failed Millions with Decades-Old Debts","authors":"M. Pierce","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3934017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3934017","url":null,"abstract":"This report synthesizes research, public records, and largely-overlooked documentary evidence from the Department of Education to identify various glaring warning signs that Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) is failing millions of borrowers who have been in repayment for decades on federal student loans—and that it is slated to continue doing so for years to come. Reflecting its stated goal of preventing federal student loans from being a lifetime commitment, IDR offers borrowers the promise of loan forgiveness after 20 to 25 years of repayment. However, previous research shows that only 32 borrowers have ever secured loan forgiveness through IDR. This paper documents the administrative hurdles contributing to this failure and the industry records confirming that it is likely to continue. In its upcoming negotiated rulemaking, ED has the opportunity to address these breakdowns and provide an avenue for relief for borrowers who have been in repayment for decades.","PeriodicalId":214889,"journal":{"name":"Consumer Law eJournal","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127957851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Online Advertising: The French Competition Decision on Google's Self-Preferencing in Ad Tech","authors":"Thomas Hoppner, Maximilian Volmar, Philipp Westerhoff","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3929310","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3929310","url":null,"abstract":"On 7 June 2021, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) concluded an investigation into Google’s ad tech business. The FCA (i) found that Google abused a pan-European dominant position and thereby infringed EU competition law by favoring its proprietary display advertis-ing intermediation services, (ii) fined Google €220 million and (iii) rendered commitments man-datory that Google had offered and intends to implement globally. The Decision is only one effort among many to restore competition in ad tech. Embedding the Decision in the global debate on competition in online advertising, this article summarizes the technical and economic background, outlines the abuses of dominance identified by the FCA, and assesses the legal implications of the Decision for affected parties as well as for (remaining) specific regulation of the conflicts of interest within the ad tech markets.","PeriodicalId":214889,"journal":{"name":"Consumer Law eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129072899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Consumers’ Right to Early Repayment of Mortgage Loans in the EU-Member States, a Case of Misguided Consumer Protection","authors":"H. Schäfer, A. Wulf","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3804928","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3804928","url":null,"abstract":"Consumer protection shifts risks from consumers to businesses. This raises marginal costs and equilibrium prices. It is justified when markets are not strong enough to allocate contractual risks or accident risks efficiently, especially in cases of severe asymmetric information between suppliers and consumers. Consumer protection can then increase the consumer’s welfare from a contract. We test these considerations in a theoretical and empirical study on consumers' right to early repayment of mortgage loans without damage compensation to the creditor in the European Union. We show in a formal model that such a right often leads to an impairment of consumer welfare, compared with the traditional rule of expectation damages for breach of contract. This applies especially if the consumer repays the loan in a low interest rate phase to take up a new credit at lower interests. From a theoretical point of view, this right has thus no solid economic underpinning, if it is not restricted to cases of personal hardship of the consumer and serves an insurance function. We additionally present empirical evidence that supports this argument, among others in a panel study on monthly mortgage interest rates of 23 EU Member States between 2005 and 2017. We show how interest rate spreads change with the level of consumer protection.","PeriodicalId":214889,"journal":{"name":"Consumer Law eJournal","volume":"210 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132626790","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Amazon’s Flywheel, Streaming Wars, and Antitrust Battles","authors":"Barak Orbach","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3883445","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3883445","url":null,"abstract":"Low prices are one of the key benefits of competition although they periodically devastate less-efficient businesses. Criticism of low prices is a prerogative of the wealthy and the privileged. Grandiose proposals to reshape capitalism in a quick maneuver are the brainchildren of intellectuals with political ambitions. In our time, attacks on low prices and outlandish trustbusting ideas married with the blessing of a populist surge. This Article explores how this genre might affect the race for dominance in the video streaming sector, commonly known as the “streaming wars.” It explains why the populist thread of the present antitrust impulse jeopardizes the institutional capacity of the United States to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement.<br>Pioneered by Netflix in 2007, in the second decade of the 21st century, the video streaming industry became one of the most dynamic and most competitive sectors in the US economy. Streaming companies have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in streaming technologies and content. To compete and remain relevant, streaming platforms must keep their rates low and persistently expand their content libraries and offerings of live shows. This competition is not sustainable. It would inevitably lead to the exit of some or most rivals, heavy losses, consolidation, and integration. This trend is already here. <br>Amazon, arguably the world’s most powerful digital ecosystem, is one of the key players in the video streaming sector. Responding to the streaming wars, Amazon’s appetite for content has been growing persistently. But, while Amazon’s rivals sell video subscriptions, Amazon sells a membership plan whose benefits include access to the company’s streaming platform. In effect, Amazon’s video streaming arm is a perk designed to lure consumers to join its digital ecosystem and retain the loyalty of existing customers. The company’s participation in the streaming wars illuminates the challenges that Amazon’s business model presents for antitrust law and policy. <br>Amazon’s guiding principles are “customer obsession . . ., passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking.” Its flywheel architecture is the company’s most admired and most feared feature. Every element in Amazon’s ecosystem intends to drive growth momentum in other elements. Integrated efficiently, the elements have persistently accelerated the spinning of the flywheel building a seemingly unstoppable growth momentum. This organizational strategy defines Amazon’s identity and corporate culture. Its success has enormously benefitted American consumers but has also devastated numerous industries and contributed to the elimination of jobs. Alarmed by the company’s growth and impact, some Big Tech critics have concluded that Amazon’s low prices, customer service, and operational efficiency are nefarious, predatory, and exclusionary strategies. The simplicity and populist flavor of this thesis have popularized it among","PeriodicalId":214889,"journal":{"name":"Consumer Law eJournal","volume":"161 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122864683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Taking Global Administrative Law One Step Ahead: Online Giants and the Digital Democratic Sphere","authors":"Orit Fischman Afori","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3874915","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3874915","url":null,"abstract":"Today, societal speech activities are increasingly conducted online. Therefore, free speech concerns focus on the digital sphere. Major online service platforms operate speech moderation practices constraining digital speech. These platforms are run by a few multinational corporations — the so-called online giants. Online giants, in fact, control the backbone of democracies, on a global scale. Against this backdrop, this article stresses a potential legal path for appropriately regulating digital speech, while preserving the free and thriving global digital culture. The argument introduced is that the online giants should to a certain extent emulate global organizations, and since they control an essential public utility, they should operate under basic administrative law norms that include accountability, transparency, giving reason, and objective review. For this end, the article inspects the Global Administrative Law movement and proposes to extend its overarching conceptualization of global public procedural principles facilitating “good governance” to the online giants’ procedures, despite their private ownership.","PeriodicalId":214889,"journal":{"name":"Consumer Law eJournal","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132074189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What Triggers Consumer Adoption of Central Bank Digital Currency?","authors":"M. Bijlsma, Carin van der Cruijsen, N. Jonker, J.G.A. Reijerink","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3839477","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3839477","url":null,"abstract":"Central banks around the world are examining the possibility of introducing Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The public’s preferences concerning the usage of CBDC for paying and saving are important determinants of the success of CBDC. Using data from a representative panel of Dutch consumers we find that roughly half of the public would open a CBDC current account. The same holds for a CDBC savings account. Thus, we find clear potential for CBDC in the Netherlands. This suggests that consumers perceive CBDC as distinct from current and savings accounts offered by traditional banks. Intended adoption is positively related to respondents’ knowledge of CBDC and trust in banks and in the central bank. Price incentives matter as well. The amount respondents want to deposit in the CBDC savings account depends on the interest rate offered. Furthermore, intended usage of the CBDC current account is highest among people who find privacy and security important and among consumers with low trust in banks in general. These results suggest that central banks can steer consumers’ adoption of CBDC via the interest rate, by a design of CBDC that takes into account the public’s need for security and privacy, and by clear communication about what CBDC entails.","PeriodicalId":214889,"journal":{"name":"Consumer Law eJournal","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123097322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mathematics, Psychology, and Law: The Legal Ramifications of the Exponential Growth Bias","authors":"E. Zamir, D. Teichman","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3804329","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3804329","url":null,"abstract":"Many human decisions, ranging from the taking of loans with compound interest to fighting deadly pandemics, involve phenomena that entail exponential growth. Yet a wide and robust body of empirical studies demonstrates that people systematically underestimate exponential growth. This phenomenon, dubbed the exponential growth bias (EGB), has been documented in numerous contexts, across different populations, using both experimental and observational methods. \u0000 \u0000Despite its centrality to human decision making, legal scholarship has thus far failed to account for the EGB. This Article presents the first comprehensive study of EGB and the law. Incorporating the EGB into legal analysis sheds new light on legal measures that are already in use, and highlights new solutions to numerous problems that the law strives to solve. More concretely, the EGB calls for the introduction of new disclosure duties that would assist people grasp the long-term implications of their choices; the imposition of new mandatory rules that would minimize the exploitation of the EGB by savvy profit-maximizing entrepreneurs; and the adoption of new debiasing techniques that could improve policymakers’ decisions.","PeriodicalId":214889,"journal":{"name":"Consumer Law eJournal","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126376942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Consumer Protection after Consumer Sovereignty","authors":"Luke Herrine","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.3781762","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.3781762","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues for a fundamental rethinking of the function of consumer protection. It is time to abandon welfare economics and adopt what this article refers to as “moral economy”. \u0000 \u0000While it is increasingly accepted that the standard neoclassical model makes unrealistic assumptions about consumers and that it tends to portray markets too rosily, many scholars seem to think that a few tweaks to the model are enough to redeem it. This article argues against that notion. Most of the claimed benefits of the law-and-economics approach — its “scientific rigor”, its “anti-paternalism”, its respect for “choice”, its ability to transcend “moralism”, and the like — depend on the unrealistic assumptions of its baseline model. It is only in this model’s hothouse version of markets that normativity can depend entirely on what consumers, suitably “informed” and properly “rational”, choose for themselves. And it is this notion of rational informed choice — of “consumer sovereignty” — that serves as the problematic Grundnorm for even the most behaviorally inflected, transaction-cost-rich forms of welfare economics. \u0000 \u0000Consumer protection should instead be seen as a series of tools that allow a community to (appoint representatives to) determine the values any given market ought to further and to experiment with ways to ensure that the market lives up to those values. From this “moral economy” perspective, markets are not pale shadows of an ideal form of perfect aggregation of individual choices but rather socio-legally constructed spaces that serve different interests depending on how they are structured. Consumer protection operates via more conventionally political forms of sovereignty: it is a way for a political community to correct for forms of market ordering that are not living up to the values of that community. \u0000 \u0000The presentation of this theoretical argument is grounded in the analysis of a particular law: the FTC’s authority to ban and remediate “unfair…acts and practices”. Making sense of this law historically and conceptually requires grappling concretely with theoretical issues that might otherwise seem airy.","PeriodicalId":214889,"journal":{"name":"Consumer Law eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126539070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Critique Of The Law Governing Capacity Of Parties To Enter Into An Arbitration Agreement.","authors":"Edwin Kimani, Peter M. Muriithi","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.3773131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.3773131","url":null,"abstract":"The authors seek to illuminate on the legal framework used to determine the capacity of parties to enter into an arbitration agreement. In several decisions, courts have set aside arbitration awards based on the lack of capacity of parties to enter into an arbitration agreement. In doing so courts have relied even on laws not chosen parties in the arbitration agreement. These decisions are a reminder that the law chosen by the parties to govern the contract does not cover all aspects of the legal relationship between the parties, and that other laws may become applicable despite the parties’ choice of law. \u0000 \u0000This discourse seeks to indepthly analyze the legal framework governing capacity of parties to enter into an arbitration agreement. In so doing, the paper will analyze both local and international laws. Insights offered by various scholars and various salient decisions of courts greatly inform this discourse. In the end, the paper will offer a conclusion to the discourse, capturing the authors view on the law governing capacity of parties to enter into an arbitration agreement.","PeriodicalId":214889,"journal":{"name":"Consumer Law eJournal","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131057644","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of Digitalization Mechanism of Institute of Financial Ombudsman on Example of Ukraine","authors":"O. Pozniakova, N. Dobosh","doi":"10.15587/2706-5448.2020.220327","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15587/2706-5448.2020.220327","url":null,"abstract":"The object of research is the problem of the rights violation of consumers of financial services. The institute of financial ombudsman is important for this function. This is the person who successfully performs the function of settling disputes in many countries around the world. The authors have developed a mechanism for digitalization of the institute of financial ombudsman, which will help in resolving disputes and preventing them through a special electronic platform of the financial ombudsman, which would optimize the cooperation of consumers of financial services with the ombudsman. This model of interaction with the mediator will be especially useful during a pandemic, COVID-19, in particular. Let’s believe that the process of appealing to the financial ombudsman through electronic systems for submitting and receiving the information will ensure the efficiency of service delivery, equal access to the procedure of consultation, and protection of all segments of the population. Analytical review of consumer protection violations was carried out based on statistical data of Ukraine, but the proposal to introduce a mechanism for the financial ombudsman digitalization is quite simple and universal for implementation in many countries. Statistics on complaints about violations in the provision of financial services in both the banking and non-banking financial sectors indicate the need to pay more attention to simplifying citizens' appeals to the regulator. The authors' survey of young people confirmed a low level of trust in banking and non-banking financial market institutions. It is important that the mediator actively participates not only in the stage of appealing disputes but also in preventing them in the form of dialogue with the consumer and the implementation of the rights and obligations of both parties. This will ensure a high level of financial inclusion, increase public confidence in the financial sector, as well as the level of financial literacy of the population.","PeriodicalId":214889,"journal":{"name":"Consumer Law eJournal","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114533988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}