While the telecom industry is fighting the bad fight against net neutrality through the legal system — the way such matters are supposed to be handled — some in Congress want to ruin the FCC’s Open Internet Order by using good ol’ fashioned pork-barrel politics, slapping riders that will undercut the pro-consumer regulation onto the omnibus budget bill now being compiled on Capitol Hill. [More]
Government Policy
Kickstarter, Tumblr, Etsy, Others Ask Lawmakers To Not Use Budget To Ruin Net Neutrality
By 12.11.15
Legislation Would Require Liquid Nicotine Come In Child-Proof Packages
By 12.11.15
Legislation to ensure children aren’t able to get their little hands on tasty-looking – but poisonous – liquid nicotine has made it past one hurdle: the Senate unanimously passed the measure yesterday, indicating widespread support for the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2015. [More]
7 Things We Learned About Federal Student Loans & The Companies That Profit From Them
By 12.11.15
Fifty years ago, Congress created the federal loan program as a way to help Americans realize their dreams of a better life through higher education. While millions of students have no doubt benefited from the program, millions of others have found themselves burdened by mountains of debts, fielding calls from debt collectors and loan servicers, and watching as their paychecks are whittled down by garnishments. Today, seven million former college students are in default with a record $115 billion in federal loans. While those figures may be oppressing borrowers, it’s providing a stream of income – and profit – for companies contracted by the government to collect payments from debtors. [More]
FDA’s Voluntary Guidance Failing To Curb Antibiotic Overuse In Farm Animals
By 12.10.15
Two years ago, the Food and Drug Administration — after decades of delay — paid lip service to the idea of reducing the use of medically important antibiotics for growth-promotion in farm animals, by asking the drug makers to voluntarily stop selling antibiotics specifically for that purpose. Critics called the FDA actions pointless while the drug and beef industries weren’t bothered in the least. And now, by the FDA’s own numbers, we can see why. [More]
Groups Call On AmEx, Chase, Citi, Toyota, Others To Stop Forcing Customers To Sign Away Their Legal Rights
By 12.10.15
Once upon a time, if a company wronged a customer — not just by screwing up an order or having poor customer service, but by actually breaking the law — that customer could file a lawsuit and try to hold the company accountable. And if the company wronged lots of customers in the same way, they could join together in a class action. Now, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, companies can get away with breaking the law by simply including a few handy lines of text in their customer agreements and contracts. But just because the company can use this “get out of jail free” card, doesn’t mean it should. [More]
Verizon To Follow Lead Of AT&T, T-Mobile; Try Some Sort Of Sponsored Data
By 12.10.15
The largest wireless provider in the U.S. has also been one of the least innovative in terms of its pricing. Its Chief Financial Officer even said earlier this year that “We’re a leader, not a follower.” And yet, Big V is just beginning to dip its toes into an idea that its competition has been swimming in for quite some time. [More]
Fiat Chrysler To Pay $70M For Allegedly Failing To Disclose Crash Deaths & Injuries
By 12.10.15
Fiat Chrysler will pay a $70 million fine to federal regulators over allegations it under-reported injuries and deaths related to vehicle crashes. [More]
Bed Bath & Beyond, JCPenney, Others To Pay $1.3M For Trying To Pass Off Rayon As “Bamboo”
By 12.9.15
Four national retailers will be paying a hefty tab at the register after federal regulators say they continued to deceptively mislabel rayon products as “bamboo,” despite being warned five years ago that this practice violated the law. [More]
Regulators Propose Changes To 5-Star Safety Ratings To Incorporate More Crash-Prevention Technology
By 12.8.15
Crash safety tests are about to get a whole lot different. Automakers striving to achieve five stars for safety from federal regulators will have to add a few things to their vehicle rosters as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced high-tech changes to its system. [More]
Consumer Advocates Ask Regulators To Investigate T-Mobile Over Advertising, Debt Collection Practices
By 12.8.15
Those two-year mobile phone contracts we all signed for so long became a relic of the past pretty quickly over the last two years, with national providers all abandoning ship. T-Mobile moved to “contract freedom” almost two years ago now, and has since then continued to make a big deal over the fact that their users are neither locked into time-locked agreements nor face old-school high data overage fees. [More]
FTC Says Staples-Office Depot Deal Is A No-Go, Files Antitrust Lawsuit To Stop Mega-Merger
By 12.7.15
The nightmare dream of the formation of the $6.3 billion StaplesMaxDepot Voltron has officially hit a (very big) speed bump: federal regulators unsurprisingly filed a complaint today charging that the proposed mega-merger’s affect on commercial businesses would violate antitrust laws. [More]
Debt Collector Must Pay $2.5M In Refunds, Penalties For Illegally Collecting Consumers’ Old AT&T Debt
By 12.7.15
Federal regulators continued their fight against unscrupulous debt collectors today, ordering a Massachusetts organization to pay $2.5 million in refunds and penalties for illegally collecting unverified debt and providing inaccurate information to national credit reporting agencies. [More]
Net Neutrality Opponents, FCC Get Their Long-Awaited Day To Argue In Court
By 12.4.15
We all knew from the moment that the FCC voted to reclassify broadband and protect the open internet back in February that ISPs would file every suit they could think of to kill the rule off again, as thoroughly as could be. The suits were formally filed back in April, but the wheels of justice and government roll at something of a slow grind and so the oral arguments in the case were finally heard today. [More]
Feds Forgive $103M In Debt For Nearly 7,000 Former Corinthian College Students
By 12.4.15
Nearly 7,000 additional former students of defunct for-profit chain Corinthian College will have their loan debt erased by the federal government. While the $103 million tab sounds like a lot, it’s only a fraction of the billions of dollars that Wyotech, Heald College and Everest University charged in tuition. [More]
Subprime Credit Reporting Company To Pay $8M For Illegally Obtaining Consumers’ Credit Info
By 12.3.15
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, companies – and lenders – are allowed to access credit reports only for “permissible purposes,” like determining if a person is creditworthy. But federal regulators say a Florida-based subprime credit reporting company illegally obtained tens of thousands of consumers’ credit reports for use in marketing materials for potential clients, including payday lenders.
Denying Travelers Compensation For Damaged Bags Won’t Fly With The DOT Starting Jan. 9
By 12.3.15
Some airlines aren’t living up to their obligation to compensate passengers for damage to their luggage, recent inspections by the Department of Transportation found. Now, the agency is warning carriers that if their policies and trainings don’t fall in line with federal regulations by Jan. 9, they could face fines and other enforcement action. [More]
Report: Credit Card Reforms Saved Consumers $16B In Six Years
By 12.3.15
In 2009, lawmakers passed a massive set of reforms for the credit card industry – known as the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD Act) — aimed at protecting consumers though transparency, fairness, accountability and better access to an array of financial products. A new report from the agency tasked with enforcing these rules, finds that nearly six years after implementation, consumers have saved nearly $16 billion in fees. [More]
AT&T Exec Claims Net Neutrality Delayed “A Bunch Of Stuff”
By 12.3.15
Tomorrow, the FCC will square off in court against the telecom industry over the recently enacted Open Internet order (aka “net neutrality), which allows the government to regulate broadband in a way similar to its oversight of telephone lines. AT&T, which has sued the government over the neutrality rules, is now making vague claims that the FCC’s actions caused it to hold off on releasing a “bunch of stuff.” [More]
