Underneath All Are the Contracts

Ralph Nader explains the problem with standard form contracts and introduces faircontracts.org.

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Spooky: What lurks in the fine print of your credit cards!

Spooky:  What lurks in the fine print of your credit cards! It’s Halloween and what lurks in the fine print of your credit card agreements can be downright spooky — and harmful to your consumer rights.  Jeanine Skowronski interviews Theresa Amato, Paul Bland, Ira Rheingold, and others in The Hidden Risks in Your Credit Card’s…

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The Fine Print in Employment Contracts: Jimmy John’s Wants Workers to Fork Over a Promise Not to Compete

The Fine Print in Employment Contracts:  Jimmy John’s Wants Workers to Fork Over a Promise Not to Compete Dave Jamieson at The Huffington Post explains how Jimmy John’s corporate standard hiring packet contract contains a “non-compete” provision that franchisees may use and require employees to sign.  Usually these types of restrictive clauses are found in…

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Ralph Nader Discusses the Fine Print in “The Incarceration of the American Consumer”

Ralph Nader Discusses the Fine Print in “The Incarceration of the American Consumer”  Nader writes: “We need to focus on the incarcerating infrastructure that corporate attorneys build year after year to insulate their corporate paymasters from structural accountability under the rule of law. Take the two main pillars of American law—contracts and torts. For half a…

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Alliance for Justice Releases “Lost in the Fine Print” – a short film.

Lost in the Fine Print (2014):  Today, the Alliance for Justice releases a short film produced by AFJ President Nan Aron and the Director of Justice Programs, Michelle Schwartz, and moderated by former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich.  The film discusses the devastating consequences of forced arbitration in the fine print.  The website where the…

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Your Firstborn Child for Free WiFi? A “Herod Clause” in the Fine Print!

Your Firstborn Child for Free WiFi?  A “Herod clause” in the Fine Print! Rachel Feltman reports here in the Washington Post and Tom Fox-Brewster of the Guardian has more details here about an experiment a security firm conducted in London.  F-Secure was making a point:  Six Londoners clicked right through the terms requiring them to give…

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More Than You Wanted To Know

More Thank You Wanted to Know:  The Failure of Mandated Disclosure By Omri Ben-Shahar and Carl E. Schneider (Princeton Press 2014) Omri Ben-Shahar, the Leo and Eileen Herzel Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, and Carl E. Schneider, the Chauncey Stillman Professor of Law and professor of Medicine at the University of Michigan,…

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Federal Legislation to Ban Contracts with Nondisparagement Clauses

H.R. 5499 Federal Legislation to Ban Contracts with Non-Disparagement Clauses On September 16, two members of Congress from the California delegation (Rep. Eric Swalwell and Rep. Brad Sherman) introduced “The Consumer Review Freedom Act,” H.R. 5499, to ban nondisparagement clauses in consumer contracts.  Scott Michelman writes here at the Consumer Law and Policy Blog that…

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California Bans Non-Disparagement Contract Clauses that Prohibit Consumers from Criticizing Goods or Services

California Bans Non-Disparagement Contract Clauses that Prohibit Consumers from Criticizing Businesses in the Sale or Lease of Goods or Services In a preemptive strike to prevent litigation against consumers for their free speech rights, California passed a model consumer ban against “gag”provisions in contracts that limit consumers from criticizing a business (its employees or agents)…

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Professor Nancy S. Kim on Here & Now talks to Jeremy Hobson about online “Wrap Contracts”

Professor Nancy S. Kim on Here & Now talks to Jeremy Hobson about online “Wrap Contracts”   On August 6, 2014, Professor Nancy S. Kim discussed here “What Are You Agreeing To In Online Contracts.”   She mentions Faircontracts.org midway through the piece (3.46) and what consumers should look out for in online terms. 

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The Courthouse Doors Are Shutting Because of Forced Arbitration

The Courthouse Doors Are Shutting Because of Forced Arbitration Lina Khan in the Washington Monthly, here, and Herman Schwartz, in The Nation, here, both have great articles explaining how consumers are being shut out of court because of the fine print in standard form contracts.  The Supreme Court is allowing forced pre-dispute arbitration clauses to…

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