Misleading Marketing Practices Research Articles

Access to Justice in Higher Education: The Student as Consumer in China

AbstractWith the massive expansion of higher education in China from the late 1990s onwards, private (“social”) forces have increasingly funded higher education institutions. In today's competitive and commercialized environment, private universities are under increasing pressure to make themselves more attractive to potential students. As a result, private HEIs sometimes resort to misleading marketing practices in order to entice prospective students and hike up tuition fees, despite often providing substandard education. The handling of student–university disputes by the courts and other bodies tends to remain administrative in nature. Students are to be regulated rather than seen as consumers with rights and interests to be protected. The system fails to provide adequate redress for the shoddy treatment and educational service that students in private institutions often receive. This paper suggests that a more “consumer welfare” approach would complement the current institutionally focused, academic administration approach found in mainland China today. Given the problems with many private HEIs in China, it would also reflect more realistically the needs of the emerging “student-consumer.”

Crowdfunding for complementary and alternative medicine: What are cancer patients seeking?

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is increasingly being integrated into conventional medical care for cancer, used to counter the side effects of conventional cancer treatment, and offered as an alternative to conventional cancer care. Our aim is to gain a broader understanding of trends in CAM interventions for cancer and crowdfunding campaigns for these interventions. GoFundMe campaigns fundraising for CAM were retrieved through a database of crowdfunding campaign data. Search terms were drawn from two National Institutes of Health lists of CAM cancer interventions and a previous study. Campaigns were excluded that did not match these or related search terms or were initiated outside of June 4th, 2018 to June 4th, 2019. 1,396 campaigns were identified from the US (n = 1,037, 73.9%), Canada (n = 165, 11.8%), and the UK (n = 107, 7.7%). Most common cancer types were breast (n = 344, 24.6%), colorectal (n = 131, 9.4%), and brain (n = 98, 7.0%). CAM interventions sought included supplements (n = 422, 30.2%), better nutrition (n = 293, 21.0%), high dose vitamin C (n = 276, 19.8%), naturopathy (n = 226, 16.2%), and cannabis products (n = 211, 15.1%). Mexico (n = 198, 41.9%), and the US (n = 169, 35.7%) were the most common treatment destinations. These findings confirm active and ongoing interest in using crowdfunding platforms to finance CAM cancer interventions. They confirm previous findings that CAM users with cancer tend to have late stage cancers, cancers with high mortality rates, and specific diseases such as breast cancer. These findings can inform targeted responses where facilities engage in misleading marketing practices and the efficacy of interventions is unproven.

Introduction to Special Issue: Trust in Doubt: Consuming in a Post-Truth World

Introduction to Special Issue: Trust in Doubt: Consuming in a Post-Truth World

CORR Synthesis: What Is the Evidence for the Clinical Use of Stem Cell-based Therapy in the Treatment of Osteoarthritis of the Knee?

CORR Synthesis: What Is the Evidence for the Clinical Use of Stem Cell-based Therapy in the Treatment of Osteoarthritis of the Knee?

Exploiting science? A systematic analysis of complementary and alternative medicine clinic websites’ marketing of stem cell therapies

ObjectiveTo identify the frequency and qualitative characteristics of stem cell-related marketing claims made on websites of clinics featuring common types of complementary and alternative medicine practitioners. The involvement of complementary...

Consumer Remedies for Misleading or Deceptive Marketing Practices: Reform of the Law in Hong Kong

This paper aims to set out theoretical justifications for legislative reform in Hong Kong to protect consumers from misleading or deceptive marketing practices and to provide the outlines of a theoretical framework to delineate the proper scope of such protection. The Hong Kong Consumer Council has put forward proposals recommending a general statutory prohibition on unfair marketing practices, including misleading or deceptive acts or omissions, giving consumers the right to seek remedies for losses suffered therefrom. It is argued in this paper that such a statutory provision is justified through an examination of the rationales for regulation. The theoretical justifications for consumer protection are important not only for supporting the argument for law reform in Hong Kong, but are also important in ascertaining the proper scope of any new statutory provisions. Accordingly this paper also examines the potential reach of a general statutory prohibition on misleading marketing practices.

Consumer Remedies for Misleading or Deceptive Marketing Practices: Reform of the Law in Hong Kong

This paper aims to set out theoretical justifications for legislative reform in Hong Kong to protect consumers from misleading or deceptive marketing practices and to provide the outlines of a theoretical framework to delineate the proper scope of such protection. The Hong Kong Consumer Council has recently put forward proposals recommending a general statutory prohibition on unfair marketing practices, including misleading or deceptive acts or omissions, giving consumers the right to seek remedies for losses suffered therefrom. It is argued in this paper that such a statutory provision is justified through an examination of the rationales for regulation. This paper seeks to adopt a theory of corrective justice to provide the basic rationale for consumer protection from misleading marketing practices. Other justifications can also be important, including economic theories, but it is argued that ethical concerns derived from the concept of corrective justice best explain the need for protection of consumers. The theoretical justifications for consumer protection are important not only for supporting the argument for law reform in Hong Kong, but also in ascertaining the proper scope of any new statutory provisions. Accordingly this paper also examines the potential reach of a general statutory prohibition on misleading marketing practices, with reference in particular to the concept of ‘misleading or deceptive conduct’ adopted under the Australian Trade Practices Act 1974, s. 52 and in Hong Kong under the existing prohibition in the Telecommunications Ordinance, s. 7M. The width of such a statutory prohibition of misleading or deceptive conduct compared with common law concepts of misrepresentation is analysed and justified through the lens of the theories for consumer protection. In addition, the question of the appropriate standard for measuring whether conduct is misleading is highlighted and assessed as an example of a particular issue that would need to be resolved in any reform of the law in Hong Kong.