Earlier today, the Justice Dept. and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced the largest auto loan discrimination settlement in U.S. history with the news that Ally Bank has agreed to pay $98 million, including $80 million in refunds to settle allegations that it has been charging higher interest rates to minority borrowers of car loans. [More]
Government Policy
Verizon Says It Will Publish Reports On Law Enforcement Requests For Phone Records
By 12.20.13
In the ongoing brouhaha over the National Security Agency’s data-collecting, Verizon announced last night that it will publish information about how many requests it received from various law enforcement agencies this year for customer records. [More]
Rich Dude Found Guilty Of Counterfeiting Millions’ Worth Of Rare Wines
By 12.19.13
About a decade ago, Rudy Kurniawan, a young immigrant from Indonesia, began hanging out with connoisseurs of rare wine. He bought and sold collectible bottles, selling $24.7 million worth of his finds at just one auction in 2006. Authorities and wine collectors now know that many of the wines he’s sold over the years have been fake. [More]
FCC Wants To Let You Watch Your Home Team’s Games At Home
By 12.19.13
Sports broadcasting: it’s both lucrative and confusing. Sometimes you can turn on the TV and watch a game that’s taking place in your own hometown, and sometimes you can’t. When you can’t, you’re part of a broadcast blackout. [More]
“Organic” Chicken Is Different Than “Antibiotic-Free” And “Natural” Means Nothing
By 12.19.13 — Updated: 12.19.16
Once upon a time, not very long ago, you went to the grocery store — not a big box store, or a warehouse club or online — and bought “chicken.” Now the poultry section can be a confusing mish-mash of labels that may not mean what consumers think they mean, or may not mean anything at all. [More]
Delta & Southwest Don’t Want To Listen To Passengers Gabbing On Phones For The Whole Flight
By 12.18.13
Last week, the FCC said it was investigating whether to lift the ban on in-flight cellphone usage, which caused the Dept. of Transportation to effectively say, “Are you flippin’ crazy?” and announce that it would look into the need to set out its own guidelines to possibly stop planes from turning into flying tubes filled with obnoxious one-way conversations. In recent days, two of the nation’s largest carriers have joined their voices to the call for quiet on board. [More]
CashCall Tries To Collect On Illegal Payday Loans, CFPB Says “Nice Try”
By 12.17.13
Collecting a debt from people who owe money is one thing. Collecting a debt from people who don’t legally owe because those loans should never have been written in the first place? That’s another problem altogether, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is very upset with one company . [More]
Google Officially Recalls Super-Hot HP Chromebook 11 Chargers
December 17, 2013
A month after Google pulled its then-new HP Chromebook 11 laptops because the micro-USB charger included with the device can reach unsafe temperatures (as high as 140 degrees), the company and the Consumer Product Safety Commission have issued a formal recall. If you have an affected Chromebook 11, just fill out this form here to get a replacement charger. [More]
FDA Proposal Gives Makers Of Antibacterial Soap A Year To Prove Their Products Are Safe
By 12.16.13
The Food and Drug Administration has been under pressure for some time now to take a closer look at antibacterial soap to see whether we should actually be slathering the stuff all of over our hands and bodies every day. And now it’s proposing a one-year period for manufacturers to prove that yes, the soap is safe for everyday use and in the long-term. [More]
Big Meat & Big Pharma Pleased As Punch With FDA’s Pointless New Antibiotic Guidelines
By 12.13.13
Yesterday, the FDA came out swinging (with a Wiffle ball bat) against the medically unnecessary use of antibiotics in animal feed (by politely asking the drug companies that make piles of cash off these drugs to please stop selling so many of them to farmers just to encourage tissue growth). To demonstrate just how weak this (in)action is, one need look no further than the enthusiastic response from the nation’s huge meat and drug companies. [More]
IKEA Recalls 23 Million Wall-Mounted Lamps Following Death Of Toddler
By 12.13.13
IKEA has issued a global recall of 23 million lamps (more than 3 million in the U.S. and Canada alone) after the death of a 16-month-old child who became entangled in the lamp’s cord while in their crib, and another incident involving a 15-month-old who nearly strangled on the lamp’s cord. [More]
FCC Mulls Lifting Ban On In-Flight Phones But DOT May Stop You From Gabbing Away On Planes
By 12.13.13
Yesterday, the FCC began the onerous process of considering whether to revise the decades-old rules regarding the use of wireless phones in flight. If the Commission eventually changes those rules, the relative quiet of the airplane cabin could eventually be filled with the dulcet tones of one-sided conversations like “I know! Seriously!” and “Uh-huh, uh-huh.” Since this seems like a disastrous idea to some people, the Dept. of Transportation is going to consider whether it should allow calls to take place at all. [More]
What Should I Do If No One Accepts My Chobani Recall Coupons?
By 12.12.13
Remember the Chobani yogurt recall this past fall, when fungal contamination led to sour-tasting, occasionally-exploding yogurts distributed nationwide? Chobani made it up to their customers by sending coupons so they could replace their contaminated products. The problem with that is that some grocers won’t accept these coupons. [More]
Wireless Companies Adopt Voluntary Unlocking Standards. Are They The Right Ones?
By 12.12.13
A month after new FCC Commissioner Tom Wheeler asked the wireless industry to stop futzing around and agree to some consumer-friendly standards for unlocking wireless devices, the wireless biggies get around to revealing what they believe are guidelines that are the best for everyone. [More]
Coby Electronics TVs Recalled: Might Go Down In Flames Just Like The Manufacturer
By 12.12.13
You might remember Coby Electronics, the manufacturer of low-priced gadgets that always seemed to be on half-price sale at your local drugstore. The company went out of business a few months ago, and a well-known liquidation firm took over its assets but not its liabilities. One of the company’s TV models may have a faulty component, which could cause the set to catch fire. [More]
CFPB Report Confirms That Banks & Credit Card Companies Are Taking Away Your Right To Sue
By 12.12.13
In 2011, the Supreme Court held that it was A-OK to not only hide a complicated forced-arbitration clause in a novel-length contract for a consumer product or service, but that it was also just peachy that such a clause stripped the consumer of his/her right to bind together with other affected customers in a class action. Since then, sellers of everything from cellphone service to video games have added these complicated clauses in an attempt to keep complaining consumers out of court and into the unfair arena of arbitration. Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued its first report on forced arbitration, and the results are, sadly, not shocking. [More]
Chromebook 11 Charger Measured At A Toasty 140 Degrees
By 12.12.13
You probably didn’t need more proof that you should stop using the charger that came with your Chromebook 11 from HP. First we heard reports from Consumerist’s own editorial offices, then Google itself told customers to quit using the charger. Now Consumer Reports happens to be testing Chromebooks, and measured the surface temperature of the charger: 140 degrees. [More]
FDA Politely Asks Drug Companies To Voluntarily Stop Providing Antibiotics For Animal Feed
By 12.11.13
In the face of numerous reports indicating that the practice of using medically unnecessary antibiotics to bulk up farm animals is leading to millions of people getting sick each year from drug-resistant pathogens, the Food & Drug Administration drew a line in the sand today and put an end to the practi– oh wait, I meant that the FDA has politely asked drug companies to voluntarily phase out sales of these drugs to farmers. [More]
