Today was the first day of the federal court hearing where Staples and Office Depot are making their cases about whether a proposed merger of the two companies would be beneficial to or terrible for consumers. Today, both sides made their opening arguments. The FTC is concerned about possible price hikes for consumers, and the two office supply companies are concerned that Amazon is going to crush them. [More]
Government Policy
Would You Get An IRS Tattoo If It Meant Never Paying Taxes Again?
By 3.21.16
You might love your mother enough to get her name tattooed on your arm, but what about the Internal Revenue Service? Though it’s unlikely that your average taxpayer would permanently ink the agency’s name on their dermis out of sheer love, some Americans say they’d get an IRS tattoo if it meant they would never have to pay taxes again. [More]
$176M In Wages Garnished For Unpaid Federal Student Loans In Just Three Months
By 3.21.16
Millions of would-be students turn to the federal government in order finance their education, each taking out thousands of dollars in loans. While that influx of funds allows borrowers to seek a better life by obtaining a degree, it also has to be repaid. And when that becomes impossible for some consumers, debt collectors hired by the Department of Education sometimes resort to garnishing wages. [More]
Nissan Expands Rogue SUV Recall Over Fuel Pump Issues
By 3.21.16
Nearly a year after Nissan recalled 76,000 Rogue SUVs because the fuel pump could fail, leading the vehicle to stall, the carmaker is expanding the safety initiative to include almost 47,000 additional cars. [More]
Hey, Where’s My Check Or Coupons From That Starkist Tuna Lawsuit?
By 3.18.16
With canned tuna in the news due to a recent recall of Bumble Bee and Chicken of the Sea tuna, a few readers remembered the can under-filling class action that they filed claims in last year. One reader pointed out that it’s been a few months: shouldn’t the checks and free tuna vouchers be coming soon? Well… no. Not yet. [More]
Appeals Court Questions Tennessee & North Carolina Lawsuit To Restrict Community Broadband
By 3.18.16
More than a year after the FCC voted to preempt state laws in Tennessee and North Carolina that heavily restrict city- and county-owned utilities from providing broadband to consumers, the states and the federal regulator finally had their day in court. [More]
Debt Relief Company Must Pay $170M For Illegally Charging Customers
By 3.18.16
Back in 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Morgan Drexen, accusing the debt relief company of deceiving customers with promises of reducing their debt and charging illegal upfront fees to do so. Today, the Bureau announced a federal district court approved a final judgement requiring the company to pay $132.8 million in restitution and a $40 million civil penalty. [More]
FBI To Carmakers, Owners: Your Vehicles Are “Increasingly Vulnerable” To Hackings
By 3.18.16
Nearly a year after the very public hacking of a Jeep that eventually led to the recall of more than 1.4 million Fiat Chrysler vehicles, federal law enforcement and vehicles safety officials are warning carmakers and owners that their vehicles are “increasingly vulnerable” to hackings. [More]
Staples, Office Depot: FTC’s Opposition To Billion-Dollar Merger Is “Flawed,” “Wrong”
By 3.18.16
Three months after federal regulators filed a lawsuit to stop the nightmare dream formation of the $6.3 billion StaplesMaxDepot Voltron , the CEOs of the mega-office supply chains are fed up, and they’re taking that frustration to the customers by airing their true thoughts on the Federal Trade Commission’s attempt to stop the deal. [More]
App Developers Warned: You Need To Tell Consumers First If You’re Going To Eavesdrop
By 3.17.16
Your phone has a microphone, and it listens — but not just when you’re making a call or practicing a second language on purpose. It listens whenever an app tells it to, and to whatever happens to be around you for it to hear. And if an app does that without telling you first, it could be in hot water with the Federal Trade Commission. [More]
YouTube Stops Complaining About T-Mobile’s Binge On, Joins Program
By 3.17.16
Remember all those years ago, when YouTube publicly railed against T-Mobile’s Binge On program, saying the wireless company may have violated FCC rules by throttling all video traffic? And then it led to a war of words, culminating in the T-Mobile CEO cursing out his critics on Twitter and accusing the Electronic Frontier Foundation of taking money from his competition? That was only a matter of weeks ago, but it’s all water under the bridge because YouTube has agreed to be part of Binge On after T-Mo made changes to give content companies more control over streaming quality. [More]
Religious Groups Call On DNC Chair To Denounce Pro-Payday Loan Bill
By 3.17.16
Faith-based community organizations are among the loudest voices in the battle against predatory lending practices like payday loans. And while most of their efforts are on education and local reforms, a coalition of these groups is thinking nationally, calling on Congress, including the chair of the Democratic National Party, to rethink their support a pro-payday loan piece of legislation. [More]
Automatic Emergency Braking To Be Standard In Cars By 2022
By 3.16.16
A number of cars being sold today already have forward-collision warning and automatic emergency braking as available optional safety features, but automakers and federal regulators have reached a deal that will make these features standard in almost every car sold in the U.S. by 2022. [More]
Comcast, AT&T Lobbyists Help Kill Community Broadband Expansion In Tennessee
By 3.16.16
When cable and telecom companies go through the effort of writing anti-consumer legislation for states, they can later be counted on to lobby to keep those laws in place when challenged. Case in point: Lobbyists for Comcast and AT&T recently helped kill a small piece of legislation in Tennessee that would have allowed a city-run utility to expand the reach of its broadband service. [More]
The TWC/Charter Merger Looks Likely To Happen — And Soon
By 3.16.16
What Comcast spent more than a year failing to do looks to be a victory in the making for Charter: As the Washington rumor mill has it, the three-way mega-cable-merge of Charter, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks could get through a major hurdle and gain approval by the end of the week. In other words, it looks like this one’s going to happen. [More]
Maserati Recalls 28,000 Cars Because Floor Mats Shouldn’t Drive Your Vehicle
By 3.15.16
If you’re one of the few lucky (we suppose) people who own a vehicle by Italian luxury carmaker Maserati, listen up: the company is recalling more than 28,000 Quattroporte and Ghibli sedans that can simply run away from drivers. [More]
Feds Shut Down Illegal Student Loan Debt Relief Operation
By 3.15.16
Last December, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a lawsuit against Student Loan Processing.US, a debt relief operation, that allegedly reaped millions of dollars from thousands of consumer by promising to provide repayment benefits that come free of charge with federal student loans. Today, the agency took steps to put an end to the organization once and for all. [More]
Law Firm In Charge Of Corinthian Colleges Turnaround Fired By Dept. Of Education
By 3.15.16
When Education Credit Management Corporation completed the purchase of 56 Everest University and WyoTech campuses from now-defunct for-profit education chain Corinthian Colleges, it agreed to hire an independent monitor to oversee the turnaround of the schools. Things apparently aren’t going so well, as the Department of Education announced it has fired the law firm hired for the task. [More]
