Sneak in Contracts

My co-author Shmuel I. Becher (our forthcoming article on consumer protection is here) has a new article with Uri Benoliel in which they report an empirical study they conducted. The article Sneak in Contracts: An Empirical Perspective, available here. They examine 500 contracts of the most popular American website and show that the vast majority of those contracts allow firms a unilateral discretion to change the rights and obligations after acceptance. They warn: "The findings of this study raise concerns as to whether sneak in contracts are aligned with some of the prominent core values and principles of contract law, such as consent, promise, reliance, consideration, freedom, choice, empowerment and community. The study thus calls for the introduction of an underdeveloped principle in the law that governs the modification of consumer contracts: the principle of transparency. It then offers a set of concrete recommendations, which will allow policymakers and courts to exhibit a more developed, sound and effective approach to the problem of sneak in contracts."