Because there’s no guarantee that willfully exposing your skin to the sun won’t increase the risk of cancer, whether you’re basking in the rays of a UV lamp or sunning on the beach, a New York tanning salon company has agreed to a settlement that bars it from making misleading health-related claims regarding the harms and benefits of indoor tanning. [More]
NEW YORK
Senator: Regulators Should Investigate E-Cigarette Explosions, Issue Recalls
By 12.19.16
Despite their popularity, e-cigarettes are a “ticking time bomb” that should be more closely investigated by federal regulators and recalled if necessary, according to New York Senator Chuck Schumer. [More]
Restaurant Made Hundreds Of Customers Sick On Thanksgiving Day
By 12.14.16
Hundreds of Thanksgiving diners at a restaurant in western New York apparently got a little something special with their holiday meal that made them all sick when they should have been enjoying the extended weekend. [More]
Should You Be Able To Serve Divorce Papers Through Facebook?
By 12.9.16
If you so choose, you can use the internet to avoid virtually all person-to-person contact; sign contracts electronically, transfer funds from account to account, transact business, order dinner and a movie, but can you use Facebook to sidestep the awkward — and sometimes difficult — process of serving divorce papers on your estranged spouse? Not always, says one judge. [More]
New York Bars Scalpers From Using Bots To Snap Up Tickets Before Everyone Else
By 11.29.16
Perhaps you’ve been here before: you’re waiting patiently, albeit a bit anxiously, for the moment when you can buy tickets to a concert or sporting event online. But despite your best efforts and quick action, you find that someone has swooped in and snapped up all the tickets, leaving you to the mercies of online resellers that may jack up the cost of tickets. [More]
Should Your Job Be A Factor In How Much You Pay For Auto Insurance?
November 17, 2016
While many consumer advocates believe that drivers’ auto insurance rates should be based on factors that only relate directly to their activity on the road, many states allow insurers to use a wide variety of considerations — including education, marital status, homeownership, and occupation — to help set those rates? With one state looking to halt the use of occupation data, we wanted to know what our readers think. [More]
Court Says Ballot Selfies Are Illegal In New York, At Least For This Election
By 11.4.16
Weeks after one federal appeals court ruled that New Hampshire’s ban on photos inside the voting booth is unconstitutional, a federal district court judge in New York state has come to a different conclusion about that state’s prohibition against sharing photos of your ballot. [More]
A Weird Way To Celebrate Halloween: Nabbing Gas From NJ Before Prices Go Up
By 11.1.16
A $0.23 tax hike per gallon of gasoline is finally happening in New Jersey today, and that meant a weird form of adult trick-or-treating took place last night: people from other states — okay, pretty much just New York — rushed over the border to get their last cheap fill-up before the higher tax went into effect. [More]
FanDuel, DraftKings To Pay $12M To Resolve False Advertising Allegations In New York
By 10.25.16 — Updated: 10.31.16
Daily fantasy sports companies DraftKings and FanDuel each agreed to pay $6 million to resolve New York’s claims that the companies engaged in false advertising. [More]
Airbnb Sues New York Over New Short-Term Rentals Law, State Won’t Enforce It Yet
By 10.24.16 — Updated: 11.22.16
The latest govermnent to impose rules on short-term rental site Airnbnb is New York: while the law is statewide, it’s mostly intended to clamp down on whole-apartment rentals that critics say are affecting the supply and prices of housing in New York City. The governor signed the law on Friday, and Airbnb immediately sued. Now the state won’t enforce the law until the lawsuit has been resolved. [More]
$20 Million Lawsuit Accuses KFC Of Misleading Ads For “Family Fill Up” Meals
By 10.24.16 — Updated: 10.31.16
The ads for KFC’s Family Fill Up meal show an overflowing bucket of fried chicken, but the reality of what you get with your order may not be so bountiful. A KFC customer in New York is suing the fast food chain for $20 million, accusing it of deliberately misleading customers about how much chicken they get with this offer. [More]
Airbnb Tries More Self-Regulation In New York, Too
By 10.19.16
If the vacation-booking site Airbnb has to be regulated, it at least wants to impose regulations on itself instead of having local governments do it. While the company is starting to self-regulate in San Francisco and cooperated with the city to make rules in Chicago, it also proposed rules for itself in New York. [More]
New York State Grants Unemployment Benefits To Two Former Uber And Lyft Drivers
By 10.13.16
The decision to grant unemployment benefits to two former drivers for ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft is an interesting one, since it means that yet another government agency has concluded that “gig economy” workers were treated like employees and should be considered as such…at least for the purpose of getting some income while they aren’t driving. [More]
Trump Hotel Group Settles With NY Attorney General Over Credit Card Data Breaches
By 9.23.16
In the wake of two data breaches at hotels operating under the Trump Hotel Collection umbrella, the attorney general for the state of New York has reached a settlement with the company that involves a small financial penalty and promises of improved data security. [More]
Mattel, Viacom, Hasbro Accused Of Tracking Kids’ Online Behavior
By 9.13.16
When your child uses a kid-targeted website for Barbie, Dora the Explorer, Neopets, Nerf, or Nickelodeon, federal law limits what information can be collected. But an investigation by the New York state attorney general found that some of the biggest names in toys and kids’ entertainment were violating that law by collecting information from their young users without authorization, and by allowing third parties to track users’ behavior across the internet. [More]
Samsung Phone Reportedly Explodes In Hand Of 6-Year-Old
By 9.12.16
UPDATE: The NY Post has revised — without any mention of a correction — its original story to now clarify that the phone involved in this incident was not a Note 7, but apparently a lesser-known Samsung Galaxy phone, the Core Prime. We have corrected the story below to reflect this important change. [More]
New Law Lets New Yorkers Buy Booze At Bars, Restaurants Before Noon On Sundays
By 9.7.16
New Yorkers, rejoice: you will finally be able to order a mimosa at brunch without waiting for the stroke of noon. [More]
Just In Time For Football, New York Changes Law To Legalize DraftKings, FanDuel
By 8.3.16
The nearly year-long legal battle between the state of New York and daily fantasy sports (DFS) sites DraftKings and FanDuel has all but come to an anticlimactic end today, with Governor Andrew “Not the one from TV” Cuomo putting his name to a new law that explicitly legalize certain DFS contests within the Empire State. [More]
