An op-ed by Sierra Club’s Jessica Tritsch’s starts: “A reasonable person would think that reducing strain on our energy infrastructure, bringing down consumer utility bills and protecting the health of kids would be issues that had bipartisan support, yet Congress is considering a pair of bills that would ensure the opposite. The so-called Save Our Gas […]
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
The Center for Justice and Democracy has issued a report titled “Nuclear Fizzle: How Jury Grievance Reports Whitewash Corporate Misconduct and Dehumanize Victims.” Here is the brief summary: “Corporate lobby groups are issuing reports criticizing juries when their large corporate members lose cases (which we call “jury grievance reports”). Their focus is on what they […]
I came across this Federal Trade Commission s interactive dashboard for refund data, which gives a state-by-state breakdown of refunds in FTC cases. Clicking on the “refunds by date” tab shows that 1.9 million people cashed refunds totaling more than $392 million in 2022.
The Federal Trade Commission is sending payments totaling more than $557,000 to consumers who paid money to GDP Network, LLC (YF Solution), a Florida-based telemarketing company that promised credit card interest rate reductions and regularly failed to deliver. The FTC and the State of Florida sued GDP Network and its owners in July 2020, alleging […]
In the payday lending industry’s case challenging the CFPB’s funding as unconstitutional, the agency’s opening brief in the Supreme Court and the many amicus briefs in support of the agency have been filed. You can read all of them on the Court’s website, here. Public Citizen’s amicus brief is also posted on our website, here.
The Federal Trade Commission has stopped a pair of student loan debt relief schemes that it says bilked students out of approximately $12 million by using deceptive claims about repayment programs and loan forgiveness that did not exist. The agency also says the companies falsely claimed to be or be affiliated with the Department of […]
Politico reports: “As demand for sustainable products has skyrocketed, so have concerns about greenwashing. Public comments were due yesterday on the FTC’s first update in 11 years of its “Green Guides,” which are essentially advice for how companies can make environmental marketing claims. The nearly 60,000 comments shed light on what companies, industry trade groups […]
The Federal Trade Commission has approved a final consent order against The Bountiful Company for abusing a feature of Amazon.com to deceive consumers into thinking that its newly introduced supplements had more product ratings and reviews, higher average ratings, and “#1 Best Seller” and “Amazon’s Choice” badges. Details, including a link to the complaint, are […]
A growing number of state legislatures are considering bans on cosmetics and other consumer products that contain a group of synthetic, potentially harmful chemicals known as PFAS. AP has the story, here.
The Regulatory Review blog reports that “With 77 percent of online shoppers using reviews to inform their purchase decisions, customer reviews play a crucial role in shaping international commerce. Fake reviews, which include manufactured and deceptive reviews, constitute about 4 percent of all reviews online. This 4 percent translates to a cost to consumers of […]