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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

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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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Trouble in Toyland 2012

Survey Finds Dangerous Toys on Store Shelves. CALPIRG Provides Shopping Tips & Mobile Website To Help Parents Shop Safe.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

Vote Yes on Prop 37 | Emily Rusch

CALPIRG supports Prop 37 and encourages you to support it, too. The concept behind Prop 37 is simple. Should we as consumers know more about what is in our food? Should we know if our food contains genes that are modified through engineering? 

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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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News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection, Higher Ed

FDIC Orders Higher One to Repay Students $11 million in Campus Debit Card Settlement

FDIC announces an $11 million civil penalty of Higher One, the largest campus financial aid disbursement and debit card company, for alleged “unfair” and “unsafe” practices.

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News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund | Food, Tax

Ag Subsidies Pay for 21 Twinkies per Taxpayer, But Only Half of an Apple Apiece

Tax subsidies for commodity crops are paying for junk food additives like high fructose corn syrup, enough to pay for 21 Twinkies per taxpayer every year.

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Media Hit | Consumer Protection

Reuters: How you can benefit from the Capital One settlement

Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG consumer program director, comments on the first enforcement action by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, which is about to hit its first anniversary.

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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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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Food

Recipe for Disaster

The recall of more than 500 million eggs from two Iowa egg farms is the largest but not the last of 85 recalls that have taken place in the year since food safety reform moved to the U.S. Senate. To assess one cost of that delay, Consumer Federation of America, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and U.S. Public Interest Research Group studied recalls of foods regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from August 1, 2009, to the present.

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection, Safe Energy

The Campus Credit Card Trap:

College students are among the most prominent targets for this marketing.   They are young and understand that they need credit to get ahead in the world. Some need credit because of the rising cost of a college education. Finally, most of them are clumped together on campuses that they either commute to or live at. This makes them easy to target.

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Locked In a Cell:

A high level of concentration in a major industry can be accompanied by excessive market power, which in turn can reduce competition to the detriment of consumers.

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Mistakes Do Happen:

The most common reflection of our reputation as a trustworthy consumer is our credit report. Unfortunately, the information contained in our credit reports, which are bought and sold daily to nearly anyone who requests and pays for them, does not always tell a true story.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

IPv6 Day - The Most Important Day You Never Heard Of | Jon Fox

Today marks the beginning of one of the greatest technological overhauls since mankind adopted paper money, with grave implications towards online privacy.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection, Health Care

The Almighty Dollar before Health and Safety of Americans | Jon Fox

A recent op-ed is completely correct in its assumptions that anti-regulations rhetoric from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is incessantly talking about regulations killing jobs and the economy.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection, Food

STATMENT: US Senate Approves FDA Safety and Innovation Act | Jon Fox

The US Senate Passage of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) not Strong Enough to Ensure Sufficient Consumer Safety from Drugs and Medical devices.

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Blog Post | Budget, Consumer Protection, Democracy, Food

Tragedy reinforces need for Homeowners’ Bill of Rights | Jon Fox

Californin man's death is further evidence that big banks have failed consumers.  

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

Do Not Track gets another push | Jon Fox

FTC tells congress of need for meaningful Do Not Track policies.

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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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