The recent expansion of digital financial products leads to severe consumer protection issues such as fraud and scams. As these potentially decrease trust in digital services, especially in developing countries, avoiding victimization has become an important policy objective. In an online...

Smartphone app designers often use behavioral design to influence users, increase sales, and boost advertising revenue. Behavioral design relies on elements ranging from app appearance to black-box algorithms and personalization. It commonly exploits behavioral biases, such as the lack of...

This paper discusses first the role of mobile money accounts to enhance financial inclusion towards vulnerable groups in developing countries in the light of recent empirical evidence. Second, we explore the role of regulation to address risks to consumers and the financial system arising from...

We show that financial advisors recommend more costly products to female clients, based on minutes from about 27,000 real-world advisory meetings and client portfolio data. Funds recom-mended to women have higher expense ratios controlling for risk, and women less often receive rebates on...

The emergence of the Internet as a commercialization method has offered organizations many opportunities. However, when buyers want to execute a transaction online, a certain distrust typically accompanies the need to provide personal data. To address this problem, assurance seals have been...

This paper examines how financial aid reform based on postsecondary institutional performance impacts student choice. Federal and state regulations often reflect concerns about the private, for-profit sector's poor employment outcomes and high loan defaults, despite the sector's possible...

Finanzdienstleistungen werden im Regelfall zwischen Parteien mit einem ungleichen Status abgeschlossen. Diese Ungleichheit resultiert aus der Informationsasymmetrie und der Entscheidungshoheit über die angebotene Produktpalette. Dies beschränkt die Verhandlungsmacht auf Seiten der...

We show that financial advisors recommend more costly products to female clients, based on minutes from about 27,000 real-world advisory meetings and client portfolio data. Funds recommended to women have higher expense ratios controlling for risk, and women less often receive rebates on upfront...

This paper examined the framework institutionalized for the protection of consumers in Nigeria. In particular, it x-rayed the administrative and regulatory mechanisms put in place for the protection of consumers and considered the attitude of the courts in matters affecting the consumers. It was...

As far as technology governance is concerned, in the past two years, the European Commission has been issuing one regulatory proposal after another. One of the proposed instruments is the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI ACT), which is expected to shape the future of technology innovation on the...

The sustainability goals and the circular economy have been high on the list of priorities of the EU and its Member States over the past few years. In Slovenia, they have found their way into the Constitution and into the key strategic national documents, including the Slovenian Development...

The advent of Sharia law in West Africa is linked to the propagation of Islam through activities of North African and Middle Eastern traders in the sub Saharan region, particularly in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. The advent of Islam brought about Sharia law often applied in...

The Supreme Court has held that Article II’s vesting of executive power in the President, who must “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” provides the President with the power to remove most principal executive officers at will. The Court has also held that Humphrey’s Executor...

The recent expansion of digital financial products leads to severe consumer protection issues such as fraud and scams. As these potentially decrease trust in digital services, especially in developing countries, avoiding victimization has become an important policy objective. In an online...

Consumer law has a conflicted and narrow identity. It is most immediately a form of business law, governing market transactions between people and companies. Accordingly, the microeconomic analysis of markets is the dominant influence on consumer law. On the other hand, consumer law is often...

The last few years have given rise to the dramatic growth of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), a class of largely unregulated Fintech installment loans that enable consumers to finance purchases by dividing payment into a series of interest-free installments. BNPL presents novel regulatory challenges...

In spring 2022, the European Commission launched two proposals concerning the protection of Geographical Indications (GIs): COM(2022)134 of 31 March 2022 amending current Regulation (EU) no. 2012/1151 on agricultural products and foodstuff and COM(2022)174 of 13 April 2022 on craft and...

Regulators have paid insufficient attention to the significance of standardized disclosure for stablecoins regulation. Information disclosure has long been considered a primary tool for consumer protection. Stablecoin issuers should disclose honestly and responsibly about the qualification of...

Smartphone app designers often use behavioral design to influence users, increase sales, and boost advertising revenue. Behavioral design relies on elements ranging from app appearance to black-box algorithms and personalization. It commonly exploits behavioral biases, such as the lack of...

Technology has been hailed as a game changer in the provision of various financial products. This is due to the emergence of firms adopting technology to provide tailored financial services, hence the word ‘fintech’. The rise of such firms in Kenya has led to increased financial inclusion...

We seem to be in the middle of a paradigm shift in consumer protection. For decades, regulators understood their mission as “preserving choice” through more effective informational remedies. In the past decade — and more decisively during the Biden Administration — a growing appreciation...

In this article, I discuss how preferential trade agreements have started incorporating consumer protection provisions, in deviation from the traditional practice of leaving consumer protection to domestic law. The article first outlines the traditional frontier between consumer law and trade...

The 1985 Product Liability Directive (PLD) is currently being revised, with a view to adapting European Union product liability rules to the digital economy and new technologies. The ongoing discussion focuses on technical issues and apparently takes it for granted that the PLD as it stands...

The legal consequences of void contracts are very important for the contractual parties, especially regarding their mutual restitution claims. This holds especially true in foreign currency loans annulled by courts for being unfair after a stark devaluation of the local currency. While there is...

The right-to-repair movement is a consumer rights movement that supports people’s freedom to repair and customize their gadgets, such as smartphones. To make diagnostic tools, repair manuals, and replacement parts available to the public, the movement continues to push for laws requiring...

Planned obsolescence is a practice that anticipates the entropy cycle of a product from an objective point of view or just from the consumer's perspective. Recent practices, especially in the electronic goods market, add a second type of obsolescence, caused after the goods are in the consumer's...

There has been a shift from tentative to coming of age in the regulatory stand on addressing competition and consumer protection issues arising from the power wielded by platform ecosystems. This is a positive development. Drawing upon the work of multi-lateral organisations and contemporary...

Consumers in high-stakes product markets such as healthcare or finance often rely on experts' recommendations before making a purchase decision. However, how an expert constructs a specific set of recommendations and how it subsequently affects consumer choices and outcomes have been...

Competition law, particularly in the European Union, has turned away from structural remedies and toward “consumer-facing” firm conduct remedies, a seemingly light-touch approach. These remedies aim to empower and stimulate consumers to drive competition through shopping based on accurate...

Spanish AbstractEl derecho del consumo constituye uno de los ámbitos más apasionantes de la ciencia jurídica. La toma de conciencia del legislador sobre la existencia de un colectivo que debe ser protegido se ha plasmado en amplios desarrollos legislativos en muchos lugares del planeta. La...

Mobile money is an innovation that allows financial transactions to be performed via a cell phone. Even in poor regions of Africa, almost everyone has a cell phone; therefore, mobile money could both contribute to the continent’s economic growth and ensure that no Africans are excluded from...

The regulation of microfinance services is likely to have a wide-ranging influence on the microfinance sector, particularly on institutions and their clients. This paper reveals the impact of a specific regulatory regime, the "Microcredit Regulatory Authority Act, 2006", enacted by the...