There are a number of government agencies responsible for making sure that ordinary Americans have safe, reliable products and services to use.  From cars to bank accounts to pacemakers, the products we use are regulated to ensure that what’s available on the market works.

If products that we use are unsafe, unreliable, or ineffective, it’s important that we as consumers speak up! CALPIRG has successfully fought for a number of online complaint systems and public databases to give consumers an avenue to make their voices heard when they have been wronged and to learn about other consumers’ experiences when shopping for products and services.

When a consumer files a complaint through one of these databases, it could lead to a refund or repair, other non-monetary relief, or a deserved explanation.  Whether or not the consumer receives the outcome he or she was hoping when filing the complaint, putting that information into the database is a useful tool for regulators and other consumers.  Regulators can spot trends and identify key issues that could lead to a change in regulation, product recall, or penalty to a negligent company.  Other consumers can use that information when shopping.  Smart companies will aim to stay out of a public complaint database by providing better goods and services, and responding quickly when issues arise.

Use the links below to report your issue to the appropriate agency:

• For problems with financial products and services, as highlighted in CALPIRG Education Fund's report “Big Banks, Big Complaints,” you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint.  Their public database has been available since 2011 and is growing in usefulness daily as more and more complaints, and more complaint categories, are added. You can view and study the database here: www.consumerfinance.gov/complaintdatabase/ If another regulator is more appropriate for your complaint, the CFPB will forward it for you. It’s taking complaints about bank accounts, private student loans, credit cards, credit reporting, debt collection, mortgages, money transfers, and vehicle or consumer loans.
• For issues related to consumer products such as unsafe clothing, cribs, household appliances, electronics, or toys as highlighted in CALPIRG Education Fund's annual “Trouble in Toyland” report, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Product Safety Commission at www.saferproducts.gov.  Their searchable, public database has been online since 2011 and includes detailed information on individual complaints.
• For complaints related to cars and trucks, including tires, other car parts, and children’s car safety seats, you can file a complaint with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at www.safercar.gov.  This searchable, public database has been available since 1994 and contains detailed information on both individual complaints and recalls. You can enter your car make and model and get a list of complaints, recalls or both.
• Complaints about airport or airline service should be directed to the Department of Transportation’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division at http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer/air-travel-complaint-comment-form.  While the DOT does not maintain a searchable database of complaints, it does publish monthly reports on complaint data, which are available at http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer/air-travel-consumer-reports.

Changes to existing rules would help clamp down on greenwashing of investment funds

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled two proposals Wednesday designed to improve the accuracy and transparency of the composition and marketing of mutual funds that sellers claim are responsible when it comes to environmental, social and governance issues. 

The first proposal would require that 80 percent of a fund’s investments adhere to claims made in its name. 

The second proposal would require funds and investment advisers to disclose how they are defining and achieving their claims. Funds focused on environmental factors would also be required to disclose the greenhouse gas emissions of the investments in their portfolios. 

A 60-day public comment period will begin after the proposals are published in the Federal Register.

In response Mike Litt, U.S. PIRG’s Consumer Campaigns director, made the following statement:

“We thank the SEC for making sure investors can get crucial, accurate information about the securities they own or are thinking of buying. Americans seeking investments in line with their values shouldn’t have to hunt high and low for relevant information. 

“Even if you do your homework, it can be hard to find what you need to make informed choices. Fund companies and financial advisers shouldn’t be able to make claims without backing them up with proof. 

From my own experience, it can feel like you’re accepting ESG claims on blind faith.

“We look forward to participating in the comment period.”

LOS ANGELES -- When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalled 225 varieties of bagged lettuce, spinach and salad products in December because of potentially deadly contamination, it took the FDA a week to post a public notice on its web site. While many stores quickly notify customers of recalls one way or another, they’re not required to, and their practices are neither uniform nor always timely. Meanwhile, the ​​Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimatesthat one in six Americans get sick each year from foodborne diseases. Of those,128,000 wind up in the hospital and 3,000 die. 

“We need to do a better job on the easy part – warning consumers what could make them sick,” said Sander Kushen, CALPIRG Education Fund’s consumer advocate. “It’s horrifying that eating contaminated chocolate, fruit or salad could make you deathly ill, but it’s even worse when you realize that some food poisoning easily could be prevented with better public awareness.”

In a new report, Food for thought: Are your groceries safe?, CALPIRG Education Fund surveyed 50 of the largest grocery and convenience store chains nationwide on their notification practices and talked to experts about what needs to change to improve both communication and public safety. 24 of those chains operate in California (see graphic).

Among our findings:

• Only half of the retailers told us they notify customers by phone, text or email within one business day.
• One-third of the retailers put the onus on customers to check the store’s website or social media accounts for recall notices.
• Federal law requires more robust notifications -- including in-store signs -- under an 11-year-old law, but the guidelines are neither finalized nor enforced.  
• Better use of technology, a tactic the food industry association supports, could help significantly.

“We’ve been averaging a half-dozen food recalls a week for the last five years. That’s obviously way too many,” Kushen said. ”This country needs to improve its food production process to reduce the need for recalls in the first place. But that’s the difficult part. So, for now, we at least need to make sure grocery shoppers get the timely information they need to stay healthy.” 

Our report also includes tips for consumers on steps they can take to keep up with food recalls.

See our tips on how to read “best by/use by” package labels to understand food expiration dates.
See our tips on how to save money at the grocery store, despite rising food prices.

The public comment period for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed climate disclosures rule ends today. U.S. PIRG submitted a comment letter supporting the proposal and made recommendations to strengthen it.

The proposed rule would require publicly traded companies to improve and standardize the information they disclose about their greenhouse gas emissions.

As our letter explains, the climate disclosure rule is particularly important because Americans’ retirement accounts and other savings could be endangered if we don’t acknowledge potential threats caused by climate change and work diligently to address them.

More from our letter on why investors need the climate disclosures rule:

“Without climate risk and greenhouse gas emissions disclosures, people contributing to their Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA’s) may be unaware of how much individual companies are vulnerable to the physical, transitional, and systemic financial risks caused by climate change, or the extent to which each company contributes to global warming, thereby creating risk to other issuers.”

Recommendations from our letter for strengthening the rule to provide maximum protection for investors:

• In addition to the disclosure of direct emissions in Scope 1 and indirect emissions in Scope 2, all public companies should also be required to disclose their Scope 3 value-chain emissions. It’s critical information for assessing climate risk, as they can represent the majority of companies’ carbon footprints, and the tools to do so are rapidly becoming available.
• While the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures recommends using at least a 2°C global warming scenario for scenario analysis, we recommend a 1.5°C scenario analysis because of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s continued warnings of the significant differences in impact and quality of life between 1.5°C and 2°C temperature increases.
• Details about carbon offsets, if purchased by companies, should be disclosed. Such disclosure will help investors identify and deter greenwashing from advertised offsets that may do little to reverse climate change.

Our full letter is available here.

School’s out and summer is here! Millions of Californians will be hitting the beaches, blasting their air conditioning and visiting their friends and families across the state and country. But it’s not all fun and games. As we all take some time to recharge our batteries, it’s important to keep in mind the realities of our time: skyrocketing prices, counterfeit goods on the market and the inevitable ebb and flow of COVID cases that could potentially throw a wrench in peoples’ summer plans. 

To help you enjoy the season a bit more, CALPIRG compiled these handy summer tips to make sure you and your family stay safe and healthy this summer. We organize our tips by category, and link to our full reports where you can read even more.

Legislators, advocates working toward laws to protect customers

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (NY) and Sens. Cory Booker (NJ) and Elizabeth Warren (MA) were joined by Mike Litt, U.S. PIRG’s consumer campaign director, and other advocates Tuesday to urge action on legislation to protect financial institutions’ customers from predatory overdraft fees.

Congresswoman Maloney is the lead sponsor of the Overdraft Protection Act of 2021, which would limit financial institutions to charging a maximum of one overdraft fee per month and six per year, among other reforms. Sen. Booker is the lead sponsor and Sen. Warren is the lead cosponsor of a fairly similar bill, the Stop Overdraft Profiteering Act of 2021, in the Senate.

Mike Litt, U.S. PIRG’s consumer campaign director, issued the following statement:

“Financial institutions rake in billions of dollars a year from these overly punitive overdraft fees, which mostly penalize customers with the least money to lose. Many banks commonly charge about $35 per overdraft, sometimes 3 to 6 times in a single day.

“So-called ‘overdraft protection’ is a misnomer. Consumers need overdraft fee protection -- limits on the number of overdraft fees that can be charged per month and per year. The Overdraft Protection Act and the Stop Overdraft Profiteering Act would relieve stressful and unfair financial burdens for millions of Americans.”

New director Rohit Chopra, reversing CFPB course from Trump years, protects consumers, draws industry smear campaign

WASHINGTON -- As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) turns 11 years old, a new list from U.S. PIRG highlights 11 ways this crucial agency has rededicated itself to its mission since Rohit Chopra was confirmed as its new director by the Senate last fall. 

After three years of the Trump Administration limiting the CFPB’s effectiveness, Acting Director Dave Uejio started getting the bureau back on track. Then, since Director Chopra took over in October, the CFPB is protecting consumers better than ever before. In response, the financial industry has launched a six-figure digital ad campaign and other attacks on the CFPB’s actions.

“The big financial players never like it when the CFPB is headed by a pro-consumer director. And they certainly don’t like it now after getting comfortable with leaders doing their bidding under the Trump Administration,” said Mike Litt, U.S. PIRG consumer campaign director. “We’re already seeing financial companies changing decades-long practices on everything from overdraft fees to medical debt reporting. These more consumer-friendly policies have come because Director Chopra didn’t waste any time puting the industry on notice. It hasn’t even been ten months since he stepped into the role.”

U.S. PIRG’s list details the following top 11 actions taken by the Chopra CFPB to protect consumers:

1. Drawing attention to predatory overdraft fees

2. Paving the way for changes to medical debt reporting

3. Launching an initiative to save Americans billions of dollars in junk fees

4. Launching an initiative to improve customer service at big banks

5. Slamming the Big 3 credit bureaus for excuses, “deficiencies” and failures

6. Highlighting the particular medical billing, credit reporting and debt collection harms to military families

7. Examining for-profit colleges

8. Looking at the impact of Big Tech's entry into the payments space

9. Taking action to protect the deposit insurance guarantee

10. Making it easier for consumers to directly request regulatory changes

11. Conceding it created and operated a Trump-era taskforce in violation of federal transparency law

“Unscrupulous businesses drove millions of Americans down the road to financial ruin in the late 2000s. The creation of the CFPB soon afterward was a necessary -- and hard-won -- victory for consumers,” said Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG’s senior director, federal consumer program. “Under the right leadership -- both at the outset under Director Richard Cordray, and recently under Director Chopra -- the CFPB has delivered on its one mission: to protect consumers. After the Trump Administration’s CFPB leaders took the agency backward, Director Chopra is rebuilding upon Director Cordray’s foundation and taking it to the next level. No wonder the industry is lashing out.”

Regulators should investigate; Congress should enact fines.

WASHINGTON -- According to the Wall Street Journal, Equifax sent to lenders millions of incorrect credit scores for consumers applying for auto loans, mortgages and credit cards. The Journal reports that the scores, sent during a three-week period from mid-March through early April, were sometimes off by 20 points or more in either direction. The Journal says Equifax called the error a “technology coding issue.”

Equifax’s news release offers few specifics about the incident -- not even a date -- saying, “a coding issue…in place over a period of a few weeks, resulted in the potential miscalculation of certain attributes used in model calculations” and “we have determined that there was no shift in the vast majority of scores during the three-week timeframe of the issue. For those consumers that did experience a score shift, initial analysis indicates that only a small number of them may have received a different credit decision.” 

Mike Litt, U.S. PIRG’s consumer campaign director, issued the following statement:

“After losing our Social Security numbers in the worst data breach in history nearly five years ago, Equifax has shown once again that we can’t trust it to do its one job -- a job that Equifax and the other two national bureaus appointed themselves to do. We never asked them nor gave them permission to collect data on us or sell the credit scores derived from that data to lenders. 

“Equifax and the other two national credit bureaus serve as gatekeepers to much of the financial marketplace. Mistakes on credit scores can keep people from getting mortgages, good interest rates or even a job. Consumers have long reported problems with mistakes on their credit reports. Now they have to worry about whether their credit scores are incorrect even if their reports are correct.

“The Journal reported that the Equifax CEO said it’s ‘not something that’s meaningful to Equifax.’ That’s outrageous. Why isn’t he apologizing to the millions of consumers who might pay too much for credit or be denied credit? That impact will not ‘be quite small’ to those people.

“As was the case with its 2017 data breach, many unanswered questions and explanations don’t add up. For starters, what caused the coding issue? How exactly will it be prevented in the future? Are there other problems we don’t know about?

“We’re calling on regulators to investigate Equifax to get to the bottom of these questions. Congress should also act to protect consumers and prod the credit bureaus to take data accuracy seriously by requiring them to pay hefty fines when they put people’s credit at risk.”