Consumer Law

“A.I. has nothing to do with tobacco and an algorithm has nothing to do with the way a cigarette is designed, but the law is built by analogy,” said Ted Mermin, the executive director of the Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice at the University of California, Berkeley. “What the plaintiffs’ firms are doing is utilizing well-established legal principles in a new product area.”

“As is so often the case with ballot initiatives, Uber’s Protecting Automobile Accident Victims from Attorney Self-Dealing Act is being promoted in a very misleading manner, as if it will help automobile accident victims,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “In reality, it just will help businesses like Uber and automobile insurance companies.”

Samuel A.A. Levine, senior fellow, Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, UC Berkeley Law School joins Forum to discuss how loyalty programs exploit consumers, how California is fighting back and to stay alert to the pitfalls.

“You can’t advertise something if you know — or should know — that what you are saying isn’t true,” said Ted Mermin. executive director, Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice. “You do not need a law that’s called ‘the tequila purity law.'”

Sam Levine, senior fellow at UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, discusses his time spent at the FTC and his expertise in the area of privacy and unfair competition.

Sam Levine, senior fellow at UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice joined NPR’s Morning Edition to talk about how surveillance pricing can quietly inflate costs while undermining our privacy.

“The federal government has a limited ability to increase the supply of housing, but it can do one simple thing to help buyers: First-time homebuyers should be eligible for a federally guaranteed, graduated-payment mortgage,” writes Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy.

Ted Mermin, executive director of the Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice at Berkeley Law writes about the effects of the practice of  ‘poverty tows’ in California cities.

“Today, the CCPA no longer reflects the reality of consumer debt in America, and its approach to wage garnishment is in need of reform,” writes Berkeley Law Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy. 

David Nahmias, an attorney with the Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice at UC Berkeley School of Law discusses deceptive techniques businesses use to make it difficult for consumers to cancel subscriptions.