Taking the Con Out of Consumer Protection: Materiality and Injury in Online Disclosure Cases

We show how to evaluate theories of harm using substantiation standards similar to those online firms must meet, reducing the risk that consumer injury claims are marketed through insinuation and misleading statistics rather than established through a testable link between the alleged disclosure failure and consumer decisions. Disclosures are about information, and information is economically relevant for consumer protection only to the extent it changes decisions. We explain why cancellations,