Legal & Justice
- Consumer Protection
24 articles
Sort
America Is Drowning In Scam Calls And Texts And Donald Trump Is Making It Worse
Karl Bode, Techdirt
Just so you know: it’s not normal for your country’s voice communications networks to be completely hijacked by scammers and marketers, rendering it almost unusable. That’s literally not something people in most serious countries have to deal with. Yet we’ve …
Oct 8, 2025, 12:28 PM
A lawsuit tries to block the Trump administration's efforts to merge personal data
Jude Joffe-Block, NPR
A class action lawsuit argues that the administration's efforts to combine databases of personal information on Americans violates privacy laws and the Constitution.
Sep 30, 2025, 8:11 PM
Why is everyone buying groceries in bulk? BI's Steve Russolillo unpacks Costco's chokehold on America.
Steve Russolillo, Business Insider
In this Sunday edition of Business Insider Today, we're talking about America's Costco craze. BI's Steve Russolillo doesn't get the hype.
Sep 28, 2025, 10:44 AM
Verizon Remains On The Legal Hook For Illegally Spying On You And Selling Your Movement Data (For Now)
Karl Bode, Techdirt
For decades, major U.S. wireless providers have collected sensitive customer movement and location data (often down to the meter), then sold it to a long list of random dipshits — usually without bothering to clearly inform customers or get their consent. Fiv…
Sep 26, 2025, 4:30 PM
Amazon Will Pay Up $2.5 Billion in Settlement Over Allegedly Tricking People Into Prime Subscriptions
Bruce Gil, Gizmodo.com
Amazon will pay a $1 billion civil penalty—the largest ever in an FTC rule-violation case—and provide $1.5 billion in refunds to customers.
Sep 25, 2025, 5:50 PM
Amazon will pay $2.5 billion to settle claims about deceptive Prime practices
Brent D. Griffiths, Business Insider
The FTC announced that the company will pay $1.5 billion in customer refunds.
Sep 25, 2025, 4:04 PM
Disney sure picked a terrible time to raise prices
Emma Roth, The Verge
Disney is in a tangled web of its own making. In just one week, the entertainment giant managed to anger both sides of the political spectrum, and then topped it all off with a Disney Plus price hike that made just about everyone mad. Now, Disney's facing cri…
Sep 24, 2025, 2:14 PM
Did Amazon trick people into paying for Prime? Federal case goes to trial
Alina Selyukh, NPR
The U.S. government says Amazon manipulated people into signing up for Prime memberships that were purposefully hard to cancel. The company says its designs and disclosures follow industry standards.
Sep 23, 2025, 9:01 AM
A jury will look at whether Amazon tricked customers into joining Prime -- and made it hard to leave
GENE JOHNSON and SALLY HO, Yahoo Entertainment
A federal trial beginning in Amazon's hometown this week is set to examine whether the online retailing giant tricked customers into signing up for its Prime...
Sep 22, 2025, 8:20 PM
The Trump Admin Is Suing Amazon for Tricking People Into Prime Subscriptions. Here’s How That Might Affect You
Ece Yildirim, Gizmodo.com
The FTC is claiming that Amazon made cancelling a subscription tough on purpose.
Sep 22, 2025, 7:10 PM
Federal Trade Commission Sues Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment
Walden Green, Pitchfork
The FTC alleges that the concert giant has knowingly collaborated with secondary market brokers to spike ticket prices
Sep 19, 2025, 1:30 AM
FTC Sues Ticketmaster Over ‘Deceptive’ Ticket Pricing Tactics
Matt Novak, Gizmodo.com
“American live entertainment is the best in the world and should be accessible to all of us," said the FTC chairman.
Sep 18, 2025, 8:26 PM
The FTC’s Settlement With Aylo: This Isn’t Really About Fighting CSAM And Revenge Porn
Riana Pfefferkorn, Techdirt
This is part two of a two-part series about the recent settlement between the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Utah Consumer Protection Division (CPD), and Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub. The order (which has now been approved by a federal court) sett…
Sep 15, 2025, 8:42 PM
Deciphering last week's air travel protection news: What are your rights as a passenger?
David Slotnick, The Points Guy
Several proposed and actual changes to air travel consumer protections have changed what Americans can expect when travel goes sideways. Here's what to know.
Sep 12, 2025, 8:00 PM
Cleansed, toned, tariffed: How the end of the de minimis tariff exemption is impacting Korean beauty
Claire Wang, NBC News
Online shoppers say they’re getting hit with big, surprise fees on Korean sunscreens, skin care, makeup and more.
Sep 6, 2025, 2:00 PM
Trump is gutting America’s consumer watchdog to feed Wall Street’s greed
Marceline White, Al Jazeera English
The CFPB clawed back $21bn for Americans. Now Trump is dismantling it, leaving families exposed as his donors celebrate.
Sep 5, 2025, 2:25 PM
$25 for that? Consumers are going elsewhere for lunch.
Hallam Bullock, Business Insider
"Slop bowl" places like Chipotle or Cava were all the rage in the 2010s. Now, diners are opting for spots that offer more value.
Aug 26, 2025, 3:30 PM
DC Appeals Court Shoots Down T-Mobile Claim That Selling Your Location Data Without Consent Is Perfectly Legal
Karl Bode, Techdirt
In a rare win for U.S. consumer privacy, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled unanimously against T-Mobile and its subsidiary Sprint, upholding (for now) a $92 million 2020 FCC fine against the company for selling sensitive w…
Aug 22, 2025, 12:22 PM
These GOP Lawmakers Referred Constituents To The CFPB For Help. Then They Voted To Gut The Agency.
Joel Jacobs, Techdirt
This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. A New York business frozen out of its checking account. A Georgia chemotherapy patient denied a credit card refund after a product dispute. A New Jersey service me…
Aug 20, 2025, 7:56 PM
Labor Day sales are coming soon -- Here's what to expect and how to get the absolute best deals
Rick Broida, Yahoo Entertainment
Get ready to score some solid discounts on appliances, Apple products, electronics and more.
Aug 15, 2025, 2:31 PM
Despite A Flood Of New State Laws, Most Industries Still Suck On ‘Right To Repair’
Karl Bode, Techdirt
Washington State recently became the eighth U.S. state to pass new right to repair legislation making it cheaper and easier to repair technology you own. At this point, roughly one-third of Americans now live in a state where some form of right to repair law …
Jul 10, 2025, 8:43 PM
U.S. Consumer Protection Is Dead: Lobbyists And Lawyers Kill New FTC Rule That Would Have Made It Easier To Cancel Subscriptions
Karl Bode, Techdirt
Have I mentioned lately that the U.S. no longer has functional federal consumer protection and corporate oversight thanks to Donald Trump? And how that should probably be more of a story across journalism? Last fall you might recall that the FTC created a pop…
Jul 10, 2025, 12:22 PM
J.M. Smucker plans to remove artificial colors from its jams and other products
The Associated Press, NPR
Smucker joins a growing number of big food companies that have announced plans to eliminate artificial dyes.
Jun 28, 2025, 4:45 PM
French investigators order Tesla to stop 'deceptive business practices'
Reuters, Yahoo Entertainment
PARIS (Reuters) -French investigators on Tuesday ordered Tesla to stop what they called "deceptive business practices" or face thousands of euros in fines. ...
Jun 24, 2025, 12:24 PM