Just two weeks after recalling more than 150 food products for possible listeria contamination, a North Carolina-based food distributor is reportedly closing its doors. [More]
Government Policy
North Carolina Food Firm Shuts Down Two Weeks After Major Recall For Listeria Contamination
By 10.23.14
Audi Recalls 850,000 Vehicles For Glitch That Could Prevent Airbag Deployment
By 10.23.14
Airbag woes continued for car manufacturers around the world today as Audi announced it would recall 850,000 vehicles with possibly defective airbags. [More]
Customs Agents Seize Hundreds Of Kansas City Royals Panties In Raid On Boutique
By 10.23.14
Show me someone who predicted federal agents would be engaged in a literal panty raid and I will show you a liar, because the idea is preposterous — at first. But in a scenario that’s actually par for the course for agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (which falls under the Department of Homeland Security’s auspices) put the kibosh on a lingerie boutique for selling unauthorized Kansas City Royals underwear. [More]
Company Touting Work-From-Home Opportunities Must Pay $25M To Consumers Who Made No Money
By 10.22.14
Here are a few clues that the employment “opportunity” you received in that email is a scam: 1) you’re required to pay your new employer hundreds of dollars for a starter kit or computer program; 2) once that program was purchased you’re encouraged to buy more programs for thousands of dollars; and 3) your new employer promises that you’ll be able to make thousands of dollars in a short period of time without ever leaving your couch. That’s about how it worked for a company the Federal Trade Commission recently ordered to repay consumers $25 million. [More]
FCC Pauses Review Of Both Media Mega-Mergers Because Content Companies Won’t Share Confidential Info
By 10.22.14
The slowly-turning wheel of the approvals process for two big media mergers has temporarily ground to a halt, as the FCC today announced delays in their reviews of both AT&T’s planned acquisition of DirecTV and also the Comcast/Time Warner Cable union. The delays in both proceedings stem from the same core issue: media content companies who don’t want their rivals to learn their secrets. [More]
FTC Fines Company $10M For Achieving A Trifecta Of Annoyance: Mobile Cramming, Spam Texts And Robocalls
By 10.22.14
There are few things worse than getting incessant robocalls. Unless you’re getting robocalls, spam text messages and being charged for mobile cramming. The Federal Trade Commission says all of those horrible, terrible, no-good, very-bad elements were part of a massive scam affecting millions of consumers. And now the companies in charge of the alleged scam are paying a hefty penalty: $10 million. [More]
What Does “Organic” Mean For Non-Edible Items? Not Much, Necessarily
By 10.21.14
Way back in 2002, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began certifying food and drinks that meet the federal standards to be called “organic.” Depending on the type of food, organic certification has different requirements. While a wide variety of products are marketed as “organic,” this label doesn’t necessarily mean anything when applied to a product that you can’t eat. [More]
Feds: Don’t Say Your Plastic Shopping Bags Are Biodegradable If You Can’t Prove It
By 10.21.14
While cities and states around the country crack down on the overuse of plastic shopping bags, the Federal Trade Commission is warning manufacturers of these bags to refrain from making eco-friendly claims about their products unless those claims can be proven in the real world. [More]
NHTSA Urges Owners Of Vehicles With Defective Airbags To Get Them Fixed, Even Though No Parts Are Available
By 10.21.14
Federal safety regulators are asking millions of vehicle owners to immediately fix their defective airbags, but it may do little to actually remedy the problem. With more than 14 million cars equipped with faulty Takata airbags, car manufacturers say they don’t have enough replacement parts on hand, meaning consumers consumers will have to wait and decide for themselves whether they want to keep driving affected vehicles. [More]
FCC: 911 Outage Affected 11 Million People, Could Have Been Prevented
By 10.20.14
In the software used in a call routing center in Englewood, Colorado, there was a programming error in a single piece of software. Sounds minor, but this error could have had horrible implications: it knocked out 911 service to 11 million people in Washington state, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, California, Minnesota, and Florida for six hours in April. More than 5,600 calls in affected areas didn’t go through. How did this happen, and can we prevent it from happening again? [More]
Banks Can Stop Wasting Stamps; Can Post Privacy Disclosures Online Instead
By 10.20.14
Customers of some banks may be receiving one less communication by mail following the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s finalization of a rule to promote more effective privacy disclosures. Translation: some banks can post their privacy notices online rather than slapping a stamp on them. [More]
FTC Stops Company From Charging $210 For Pills That “Burn Fat Without Diet Or Exercise”
By 10.20.14
Consumers who buy into a product that promises to let you lose weight while continuing to sit on the couch eating bonbons will likely lose more money than they will pounds. Such was the case for the customers of a dietary supplement company being shut down at the request of the Federal Trade Commission for making unsubstantiated health claims and signing consumers up for monthly charges without their knowledge. [More]
Senator Asks Comcast To Stick With Net Neutrality Beyond Its Legal Obligation
By 10.20.14
While its counterparts (we can’t call them competition, since that doesn’t exist) at other cable and Internet service providers have been drooling over proposed “net neutrality” rules that would allow ISPs to charge content companies for “fast lane” access to end-users, Comcast has consistently maintained that it is the only ISP to hold to the since-gutted 2010 version of neutrality (without mentioning that it’s legally obliged to follow those rules for a few more years). Now the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is asking Comcast to stick to those rules even after it no longer has to. [More]
Toyota Expands Defective Airbag Recall To 247,000 Additional Vehicles In High Humidity Areas
By 10.20.14
Just days after it was revealed that defective Takata-produced airbags had been linked to three deaths in the United States, Toyota Motor Corp. expanded its recall of vehicles that may employ the safety devices to include 247,000 additional cars. [More]
Fitbit Puts Allergen Warning Labels On Wearables
By 10.20.14
You may remember the Fitbit Force, a fitness-tracking wristband that went on the market at the end of 2013, then was eventually recalled after Consumerist brought rashes caused by the devices to the world’s attention. We’ve heard reports that the Force’s less intelligent cousin, the Flex, also caused skin irritation in some wearers. Know who else heard that? The Consumer Product Safety Commission. Fortunately for Fitbit, they’re only getting a warning. Label. [More]
Honda To Audit Reporting Inaccuracies After Third Takata Airbag Death Linked To Company
By 10.17.14
Car manufacturers are required under law to report death and injury claims to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Those figures allow the regulatory agency to identify potentially fatal and dangerous defects. New reports show that might not have been the case for Honda Motor Corp., whose vehicles have now been linked to three fatalities related to defective airbags. [More]
FCC Filing: “At Least One” ISP Violating Net Neutrality By Blocking Encrypted Traffic
By 10.16.14
Broadband and mobile companies are happy to claim that we don’t need new rules to protect net neutrality, because even without rules in place, they’ve never blocked traffic in any harmful way and don’t particularly want to in the future either. However, one internet business says they have proof it happens — and the way the ISPs are doing it can have a huge effect not only on the quality of internet traffic, but on the safety of it, too. [More]
Disabled-Access Lawsuits Against Small Businesses Increasing
By 10.16.14
Everyone who likes to eat hot dogs should have the right to enter a restaurant and order some hot dogs. Recently, though, a 60-year-old luncheonette in Miami was sued when a man who walks with a cane sued, claiming 30 separate accessibility violations. Was the man even a customer of the hot dog stand? Turns out that doesn’t really matter. [More]
