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Consumer Protection

PROTECTING CONSUMER SAFETY—Toys should not be toxic or dangerous for children to play with. Our food should not make us sick. The terms for banking and credit accounts should be clear and easy to understand.

LOOKING OUT FOR CONSUMERS

CALPIRG’s consumer program works to alert the public to hidden dangers and scams and to ban anti-consumer practices and unsafe products.

TROUBLE IN TOYLAND

For 27 years, CALPIRG’s "Trouble In Toyland" report has surveyed store shelves and identified choking hazards, noise hazards and other dangers. Our report has led to at least 150 recalls and other regulatory actions over the years.

Get our tips for buying safer toys.

BIGGER BANKS, BIGGER FEES

In April, CALPIRG released a report in which we surveyed more than 350 bank branches and revealed that fewer than half of branches obeyed their legal duty to fully disclose fees to prospective customers, while one in four provided no fee information at all. We also found that despite widespread stories about the “death” of free checking, free and low-cost checking choices are still widely available, if consumers shop around.

Find out how to beat high bank fees.

SEE ALL CONSUMER RESOURCES

Issue updates

Blog Post | Consumer Protection

Citing Safety Concerns, Buckyballs maker to stop selling magnetic toys | Jon Fox

Maker magnetic Buckyballs announces that it will stop selling dangerous product.

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection, Health Care

CALPIRG joint letter on Consumer protection for “California Covered”

CALPIRG joins a coalition of consumer advocates in preventing risks to consumers using the new health benefits exchange known as “California Covered.”

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection, Health Care

Comments on the Aetna Life Insurance Company Proposal to Increase Rates

Nearly 70,000 Californians in small group insurance plans will see rate hikes averaging 8%, with some as high as 22%, if the premium rate hike proposed by Aetna Life Insurance Company go forward. After careful analysis of Aetna’s filing, CALPIRG is concerned that Aetna has not provided sufficient information to justify this rate increase.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection, Food

California’s Initiative to label GMOs defeated, but States taking up the Fight | Jon Fox

Unfazed by the defeat of Prop 37 in California, consumer groups are working across states for labeling and have united as the Coalition of States for Mandatory GMO Labeling.

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News Release | CA:PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Survey Finds Dangerous Toys on Store Shelves

“We should be able to trust that the toys we buy are safe. Unfortunately we can’t and until that’s the case, parents need to watch out for common hazards when shopping for toys.”

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News Release | CALPIRG | Consumer Protection

California Approves S.B. 1349, protecting students’ privacy on social networks

CALPIRG is pleased to see the privacy protections Californians currently enjoy extended to include social media and online sites.

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News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

CALPIRG Helps Parents & Consumers’ breathe easier sending their kids back to school

CALPIRG highlights ways to create safer and healthier learning environments by eliminating indoor air pollution caused by toxic chemicals.

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News Release | CALPIRG | Consumer Protection, Food

CALPIRG Supports Consumers’ Right to Know About Genetically Engineered Foods

CALPIRG endorses Prop 37, joins over 1,000 other consumer, environmental, labor, farmer, health and business groups in the call for the labeling of genetically engineered food.

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News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Statement on the Recall of Bumbo Child Seats

Statement of Public Interest Research Group,  Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Kids In Danger, and Public Citizen on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Recall of Bumbo Seats.

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News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Statement on the Recall of Bumbo Child Seats

Statement of U.S. Public Interest Group,  Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Kids In Danger, and Public Citizen on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Recall of Bumbo Seats.

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Report | Food

Apples to Twinkies

America is facing an obesity epidemic – one that’s hitting children especially hard. Childhood obesity rates have tripled over the last three decades, with one in five kids aged 6 to 11 now obese.

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Report | CALPIRG | Consumer Protection, Financial Reform

10 Reasons We Need The CFPB Now

This report outlines predatory financial practices that hurt consumers and helped collapse the economy, costing us eight million jobs, millions of foreclosed homes and trillions of dollars in lost home and retirement values. It explains these and other emerging problems as “10 Reasons We Need The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Now.”

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Report | Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) & University of Massachusetts, Amherst | Consumer Protection

How Wall Street Speculation is Driving Up Gasoline Prices Today

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Report | Consumer Protection, Financial Reform

Big Banks, Bigger Fees

Since Congress largely deregulated consumer deposit (checking and savings) accounts beginning in the early 1980s, the PIRGs have tracked bank deposit account fee changes and documented the banks’ long-term strategy to raise fees, invent new fees and make it harder to avoid fees. 

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Report | Consumer Protection

Big Banks, Bigger Fees

Since bank deregulation began in the early 1980s, the PIRGs and other consumer groups have conducted numerous studies documenting skyrocketing consumer banking fees. Our studies have helped to focus national attention on the problem of skyrocketing bank fees. Our results are substantiated by the results of the Federal Reserve Board's annual fee reports to Congress.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

These Are 10 of Many Reasons We Need the CFPB! | Jon Fox

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), turns one year old on July 21, 2012. Here is their Top 10.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

FTC Offers Consumers Tips on Unwanted Robocalls | Jon Fox

FTC Offers Consumers Tips on How to Respond to Unwanted Robocalls + Helpful Video.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

On the Internet, Everyone Knows If You're A Big Dog, Or Just A Dog | Ed Mierzwinski

A Wall Street Journal story today has everyone talking about how Internet sites use profiles and cookies to offer different customers different offers, or the same product for different prices. On the Internet today, everybody knows whether you're a big dog, or just a dog.

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Blog Post | Food

Farm Bill Still Giving out Corporate Handouts to Big Ag | Emily Rusch

Instead of embracing reform, the Senate decided to continue to send tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to Big Ag. 

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

As Wireless Plans Change, Consumers Are Priced Out

Verizon announced earlier this week that they would no longer be offering customers cheaper options for limited voice and text plans, shifting to unlimited voice and text minutes instead. While this change may benefit families or business on shared accounts, it will lead to price hikes for most individual smart-phone users.

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Tools & Resources

TOY SAFETY TIPS ON-THE-GO

From toxic chemicals to choking hazards to dangerous magnets, see what dangerous toys to watch out for while you shop.

TOYSAFETY.MOBI

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