Rory Van Loo

AI, E-Commerce Test Limits of the Reasonable Consumer Standard The rise of e-commerce and data-driven digital advertising is chipping away at the reasonable consumer standard, a foundational legal concept historically used to determine whether business practices are deceptive, consumer law professionals warn.

#BULawProf @vanloo.bsky.social discusses the use of AI shopping agents to combat manipulative advertising. “The frontier battle is going to be between these AI agents and the sellers who are going to try to undermine them,” he says.

Read more ➡️ spr.ly/63321CUx9B

ANTICOMPETITIVE DIRECTORS - Columbia Law Review “The practice of interlocking directorates is the root of many evils. It offends laws human and divine.” — Justice Louis Brandeis. Introduction Antitrust law prohibits competing corporations from shar...

My paper with @vanloo.bsky.social and @lanemiles.bsky.social showing that more than 15% of US companies have potentially illegal interlocking board members is now published in the Columbia Law Review

columbialawreview.org/content/anti...

Link to book: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Glad to join @jessicasilbey.bsky.social and Woody Hartzog in discussing @rcalo.bsky.social's important new Law & Technology book. Insightful comments, great company, and lots of laughter.

Overlapping Directors as a Competition Problem Antitrust law prohibits competing corporations from sharing board members—called “interlocking directorates”—and has for more than a century. ...

Lane Miles, @vanloo.bsky.social, and I have a new blog post in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance

Overlapping Directors as a Competition Problem,

corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2025/08/29/o...

My newest empirical study, with Rory Van Loo and Lane Miles, finds that more than 10% of companies in the US share board members with a direct competitor, a per se violation of the antitrust laws

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Big Fixes for Big Tech | United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Watch #BULawProf @vanloo.bsky.social testify before the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary today during the "Big Fixes for Big Tech" hearing. Prof. Van Loo will speak before the subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights.

➡️ www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-ac...

Big Fixes for Big Tech | United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Big week for Big Tech antitrust. TODAY, Senate hearing - w @kint.bsky.social, @vanloo.bsky.social, + more - on break 'em up: www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-ac...

Weds @ycombinator.com.web.brid.gy's Little Tech fest w/ @teresaribera.ec.europa.eu + US enforcers: www.linkedin.com/posts/luther...

Big Fixes for Big Tech | United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

I’m looking forward to testifying tomorrow in the Senate! www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-ac...

Volume 92.2 is now live, featuring pieces by @bdgesq.bsky.social & Aziz Huq; Jonathan Gould & @vanloo.bsky.social; Kathryn Judge & Lev Menand; @stomarova.bsky.social & Brian Richardson; Christina Parajon Skinner; Yesha Yadav & Joshua Younger; and David Zaring. lawreview.uchicago.edu

Jonathan Gould and @vanloo.bsky.social discuss Congress’s capacity to confront future threats. Noting that the playing field is tilted against Congress taking action, they propose mechanisms that Congress should utilize to regulate the risk of major crises when it has the opportunity.

#BULaw is proud to be tied at #5 for law schools with the highest number of Top 100 Legal Scholars of 2024, with #BULawProf @vanloo.bsky.social at #14, Scott Hirst at #20, and @hartzog.bsky.social at #48.

Learn more ➡️ papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

CC @tesswilkry.bsky.social @hoffprof.bsky.social @danielschwarcz.bsky.social

RSVP: Symposium on the First Restatement of Consumer Contracts Join the Harvard Business Law Review, the American Law Institute, and the HLS Program on the Foundation of Private Law on Saturday, January 25th, 2025 at Harvard Law School to hear experts from around...

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Should be a fun conference tomorrow at Harvard on the state of consumer contract law:

I interpret your post to mean that if the conference participants I call on give valuable feedback, I get some credit for improving your paper. Seems reasonable.

True story. I finished well over 500 distinct books this year outside of work. Here’s how.

1. Made regular trips to the public library to fill my backpack after a quick glance, sometimes with awesome librarian help.
2. Read a few each night to my 5-year-old daughter.

Happy new year!

A warm Bluesky welcome to Chinmayi Sharma (@chinmayisharma.bsky.social), who is doing interesting and valuable research on trustworthy AI and other tech law topics.

Yes, reducing unwanted marketing emails should be bipartisan--like stopping robocalls.

It would be nice on the policy front if Congress/the FTC prevented vendors from harvesting/subscribing customers to marketing emails simply because they’ve made a purchase. Yes, I aggressively use a decoy email for
retail. They worm their way into the main acct anyway (through Apple Pay, etc).

go.bsky.app/AMzLXXk

Many thanks to the Southern California Law Review editors for being so fantastic to work with on this, my RAs for the excellent research, and all those who provided feedback, especially Yair Listokin with whom I'll have a follow up article soon.

Delighted to see my inflation article up. It asks whether we should rely so heavily on Fed interest rate hikes, which risks great sacrifice. Another option is to first fight as much inflation as possible through policies that strengthen the economy.

southerncalifornialawreview.com/2023/12/27/i...

In a heartbreaking year, some bore a heavier burden. I was inspired by those deeply connected to tragic world events who still somehow continued to function, be kind, and give to others. One of my hopes for the coming year is that the world gives them more back.

Applying consumer protection laws "more systematically to Amazon’s price manipulation would make antitrust the least of Amazon’s legal concerns."

"Amazon regularly buries the lowest-price, high-quality items in lower search results. Consumers choosing the first item, as almost half of all regular customers do, may pay nearly a third more than they would on a lower-priced item with equal ratings." (ssrn.com/abstract=443...)

A few excerpts: Even if the recent antitrust lawsuit is successful, like most companies, from auto dealers to banks, without monopoly power Amazon could still employ an arsenal of tactics that exploit human psychology to steer consumers toward higher-priced items.

Excited to share something I co-wrote in the Chicago Tribune, reporting findings suggesting that Amazon buries the best deals low in search results.

(w/ Nikita Aggarwal) www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/comm...

A warm welcome to my tech colleague and friend Ngozi Okidegbe, who just joined Bluesky!

@ngoziokidegbe.bsky.social

www.bu.edu/law/profile/...