Fairness and enforcement: bridging competition, data protection, and consumer law

Competition in Law Enforcement and Capital Allocation

This paper studies interjurisdictional competition in the fight against crime and its impact on occupational choice and the allocation of capital. In a world where capital is mobile, jurisdictions are inhabited by individuals who choose to become workers or criminals. Because the return of the two occupations depends on capital, and because investment in capital in a jurisdiction depends on its...

Competition Law and Consumer Protection Law: Two Wings of the Same House

It is increasingly evident that the competition and consumer protection missions of the Federal Trade Commission are more closely related than people have been accustomed to think. In the early years of the Commission’s existence, the link between deception of consumers and adverse competitive effects was taken for granted, although it was not clear which was the primary and which was the secon...

Competition Law and Data

Coplink Managing Law Enforcement Data and Knowledge

H owever, despite the increasing availability of data, many challenges continue to hinder effective use of law enforcement data and knowledge, in turn limiting crime-fighting capabilities of related government agencies. For instance, most local police have database systems used by their own personnel, but lack an efficient manner in which to share information with other agencies [7–9]. More imp...

One-Way Contracts: Consumer Protection without Law

What if consumer contracts were legally enforceable only against the consumers, but not against the business? This paper, part of my project on the ‘myths of consumer protection,’ describes a regime of ‘one-way contracts’–contracts between consumers and business to which only consumers are bound, the business is not. A breaching business would face no contractual liability. The paper argues tha...