Last year, a Consumer Federation of America report found that home renters pay up to 47% more for car insurance than their peers who own their homes. Now, one state is doing something about this: Minnesota has fined insurance giant Farmers $390,000 for charging higher rates to renters. [More]
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Google Ordered To Pay Record $2.7 Billion Antitrust Fine Over Shopping Search Results
By 6.27.17
Nearly a year after rumors began swirling that Google could face a record-breaking fine in order to put a six-year long European antitrust investigation related to its search behind it. European regulators are ordering the tech giant to pay up, to the tune of $2.7 billion. [More]
Former MoneyGram Executive To Pay Record Personal Fine To Settle Money Laundering Accusations
By 5.5.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
The former compliance officer for money transfer company MoneyGram must pay $250,000 — the largest such fine imposed — to settle allegations that he personally failed to stop consumers from becoming victims of fraud. [More]
Auto Lender Fined Another $1.25M For Failing To Issue Refunds To Servicemembers Threatened By Debt Collectors
By 4.26.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
An Ohio-based auto lender that has already been penalized for $3.28 million for using aggressive debt collection tactics against members of the armed forces is once again in hot water with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for failing to issue refunds to the servicemembers that were harassed. [More]
Parents In Germany Face $26,500 Fine If They Don’t Destroy Controversial ‘My Friend Cayla’ Dolls
By 4.14.17
After researchers found that My Friend Cayla dolls were recording users’ and sending this information out to a third party specializing in voice-recognition for police and military forces, officials in Germany told parents to get rid of the toys. In case families didn’t take that request seriously, the country’s telecommunications regulator has since clarified that parents who don’t destroy their Cayla dolls could face more than $25,000 in fines. [More]
Experian Fined $3M, Accused Of Misleading Consumers About Usefulness Of Credit Scores
By 3.23.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Two months after federal regulators fined two of the nation’s largest credit reporting agencies — Equifax and TransUnion — $23 million for misleading consumers about the cost and usefulness of credit monitoring services, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has announced a $3 million settlement with Experian over allegations that the credit agency misled consumers about the usefulness of the credit scores available for purchase. [More]
Anthropologie Must Face Complaint From Customer With Crohn’s Barred From Using Employee Restroom
By 2.6.17
Anthropologie will not be able to avoid having to explain why it allegedly violated Illinois state law by refusing to allow a customer with Crohn’s disease to use the employee restroom, resulting in the customer losing control of her bowels in the store. [More]
Google Faces $3.4B Antitrust Fine Over Shopping Search Results
By 5.16.16
Weeks after European regulators announced they were opening an investigation into Google’s requirements that Android-based devices come pre-loaded with Google apps, the tech company is reportedly poised to put a second, longer-running European antitrust case related to its search behind it, to the tune of a $3.4 billion fine. [More]
Carrier Must Pay $51M For Allegedly Defrauding Lifeline Program
By 4.8.16
The Federal Communications Commission plans to fine Total Call Mobile $51.1 million after alleging the carrier fraudulently collected payments from a program that subsidizes wireless service for low-income consumers. [More]
Pennsylvania Proposes $50M Fine Against Uber For Operating Without Approval
By 11.18.15
Uber’s tendency to begin operations now and ask for permission later seems to have backfired in a big way in Pennsylvania, with two judges for the state’s taxi and bus regulatory agency recommending a $50 million fine against the ride-hailing company for operating without first getting the proper state approval. [More]
Sprint To Pay $2.95M Over Claims It Violated The Fair Credit Reporting Act
By 10.21.15
Under the Federal Trade Commission’s Fair Credit Reporting Act, companies are required to inform consumers when they are offered services with less favorable terms than those offered to consumers with better credit standing. That apparently wasn’t the case for Sprint. [More]
Comcast Must Pay $33M To Settle Charges It Listed 75,000 Unlisted Phone Numbers
By 9.18.15
Nearly a year after the California Public Utilities Commission held a hearing to determine if Comcast should be held liable for a screwup that published more than 75,000 phone numbers, names, and addresses that were supposed to be unlisted, the cable and Internet giant has reached a $33 million deal that puts an end to the matter. [More]
San Diego Woman Must Pay $15K Fine Over Airbnb Rentals
By 8.14.15
Cities across the country have been cracking down on Airbnb and homeowners who rent through the service but may be playing fast and loose with the rules: from enacting city laws and creating offices to enforce said regulations, to ordering the company to pay millions of dollars in hotel taxes and levying fines against those who provide accommodations through the site. The latest such case comes out of San Diego where a woman was recently ordered to pay $15,000 for renting rooms in her home in violation of city laws. [More]
CFPB Fines Alabama Real Estate Firm $500,000 For Disclosure Violation
By 5.28.14
Purchasing everything you need for your home at one store can be convenient – it’s one of the reasons we have one-stop-shops. But when a realty firm doesn’t tell consumers they don’t have to use an affiliated mortgage service provider, well, that’s against the law. And as one company can attest it comes with a hefty fine. [More]
“Smiling Bob” Penis Pill Scammers Nailed
By 3.3.06
Like most of you, we at the Consumerist have an entire Hotmail account devoted to unsolicited emails from Eastern European girls asking us if we want to see naked pictures of them and making frankly personal inquiries as to the size of our penis. And while we are always eager to see more anonymous hot and naked girls, we’ve learned long since that no pill on Earth is going to help us so much that we will have to tape our member to our chest when getting dressed every morning. These products just never work as advertised.
