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59 Colum. J.L. & Soc. Probs. 1 (2025-2026)

handle is hein.journals/collsp59 and id is 1 raw text is: Who Invited Them to the Party?: Using FTC UDAP Rulemaking Authority to Contain 'Infinite Privity' in Digital Consumer Contracts KATERINA KAKKIS* In 2023, a husband lost his wife to an avoidable allergic reaction at a Disney restaurant in Florida. When he sought accountability for his wife's death, Disney asked the court to toss the case because of a binding arbitration clause-a clause in a contract the husband entered into when he signed up for a free trial of Disney+ in 2019. To participate in modern digital markets, consumers must enter these unbargained-for wrap contracts with businesses. Lurking in many such contracts is unassuming and obscure legalese that extends the enforceability of consequential contract clauses to a business' limitless affiliates, subsidiaries, related parties, parents, and related services. By agreeing to these terms, consumers give up legal leverage not only to the company on their screens, but also to that company's invisible corporate web. This Note calls this contractual sleight-of-hand the 'infinite privity'problem. The 'infinite privity' problem deserves attention from the key stakeholder in the United States' consumer protection regime the Federal Trade Commission. Under its well-established unfair practice rulemaking authority, the FTC should prohibit the enforcement of infinite privity when it unjustly strips consumers of their legal rights. The new rule would not * Winner, Best Note Competition Vol. 59. Executive Articles Editor, Colum. J.L. & Soc. Probs., 2025-2026. J.D. Candidate 2026, Columbia Law School. The author thanks Professor Katharina Pistor for her invaluable guidance and thought-provoking conversations that focused the Note. She thanks her peers, particularly Kushal Modi, for their support and active engagement throughout the writing process. The author also thanks her Note Editor, Michael Sosnick, and the staff of the Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems for their help preparing this Note for publication. Finally, the author thanks Abe Kanter for sending her the article that inspired this Note and encouraging her to write about it.