Category Archives: Consumer Law
Imre Szalai, ‘Trouble, Trouble, Trouble: Taylor Swift, Ticketmaster, and Arbitration’
ABSTRACT Through Ticketmaster’s use of arbitration and the controversy surrounding Ticketmaster’s botched sale of tickets for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, this Article explores problems with the broad use of arbitration in the United States. Arbitration, a private contractual method of resolving disputes in a binding manner, is a neutral process that can provide many […]
Drake, Furner, Mehta and Xue, ‘Who’s to Blame? The Influence of Privacy Policies and Privacy Breaches on Perceptions of Contract Violations’
ABSTRACT Incorporating literature on perceptions of privacy violations, legal perspectives on privacy torts, and communication privacy management theory, this study introduces a three-entity model to examine the interplay among privacy concerns, psychological contract violations (PCV), and the perceived effectiveness of privacy policies across varying types of privacy violations. Employing scenario-based experiments, the study explores two […]
Przemysław Pałka, ‘Problems of Technological Management: On Automated Extraction of Mental Goods’
ABSTRACT This chapter challenges the conventional wisdom of how users of social media platforms like Instagram, X, or TikTok pay for service access. It argues that rather than merely exchanging data for services, users unknowingly barter their attention, emotions, and cognitive resources-mental goods that corporations exploit through technologically managed systems like targeted advertising and habit-forming […]
‘Reaffirming Established Case Law, Withholding Guidance? – CJEU in APS Beta Bulgaria (Case C-337/23)’
“The recent ruling in APS Beta Bulgaria (C-337/23) provides another example of the Court of Justice reaffirming its established case law on consumer credit. However, it also illustrates a more subtle tendency: interpretative restraint. This post argues that, while the Court preserves the continuity of its case law, its reluctance to provide detailed interpretative guidance […]
Mekonnen Ayano, ‘Tenants without Rights: Immigrants’ Experiences in the US low-income Housing Market’
ABSTRACT Immigrants who recently arrived in the United States generally are not able to exclusively possess rental properties in the formal market because they lack a steady source of income and credit history. Instead, they rent shared bedrooms, basements, attics, garages, and illegally converted units that violate housing codes and regulations. Their situations highlight the […]
Therese Wilson, ‘The regulatory response to Buy Now Pay Later in Australia’
ABSTRACT The Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) industry has seen considerable growth over the last 15 years and, from 10 June 2025, BNPL products will be regulated as credit products. This article considers the likely effectiveness of the proposed regulation which will require BNPL providers to comply with responsible lending obligations, and notes the important […]
Jie Ouyang, ‘Reading Consumer Protection in the EU Constitutional Context: What Does “Consumer Protection Is Not Absolute” Mean?’
ABSTRACT In Novo Banco SA – Sucursal en España and Others v CFO and Others, the Court of Justice of the EU held that ‘consumer protection is not absolute’ but may be limited by the Union’s general interest in maintaining financial stability and preventing systemic risk. While the idea that consumer protection is not absolute […]
Yadav, Reason and Simpson, ‘Product Liability as a Model for UK AI Security’
ABSTRACT Negligence, as a legal framework, will struggle to meet two ‘core objectives’: prompting frontier AI developers to internalise and mitigate the risks posed by their systems, and offering a robust avenue of redress for those harmed by them. This paper argues that a ‘Frontier AI’ Bill in the UK should implement a liability regime […]
Graeme Austin, ‘Communicating with Trade Marks’
ABSTRACT Focusing on the recent decision of the New Zealand High Court in Zuru New Zealand Ltd v Lego, this paper considers the relationship between the rights of trade mark owners to convey source-designating messages and the ability of competitors to communicate with consumers about other matters. To convey useful information efficiently sometimes requires using […]
Rosie Midget, ‘Intellectual Property or Modern Folklore? The Problem with Open Gaming Licenses in Tabletop Gaming’
ABSTRACT This Note addresses how courts and legislatures should address ‘Open Gaming Licenses’ commonly attached to tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), which game publishers use to promote a false image of accessibility – misleading consumers and building goodwill from the misunderstanding. Part I discusses what TTRPGs are, including the defining features of the hobby and culture […]