Tag Archives: consumer protection

Lawsuit Fails to Pacify Consumers

Frightening food options

Following complaints of toxic metals in baby food, the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy issued a request for manufacturer testing data, which indicated levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury. Although the report was requested in November 2019, one of the manufacturers, Beech-Nut, just recently issued a recall on June 9, 2021. Due to the discovery of high levels of naturally occurring inorganic arsenic, Beech-Nut is permanently discontinuing its infant rice cereal. As the FDA does not restrict the levels of heavy metals in baby food, this recall was voluntary. Consumers, however, are not satisfied with the recall and have filed lawsuits, claiming the heavy metals in baby food lead to issues in infant brain development. Continue reading →

Big Breach Leads to Bigger Compensation

What is your identity worth?

Following extensive state and federal investigations, a settlement was reached this month regarding the notorious Equifax breach. To compensate for the millions of individuals affected by the 2017 data break, the credit reporting agency has agreed to provide $300 million worth of monitoring services to affected consumers and $175 million to settle legal disputes with 48 states. If it is determined, however, that the $300 million amount for services is not enough, then there is a stipulation stating the amount will increase another $125 million. Equifax must also pay a $100 million fine to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In addition, the company must update and enhance their data security, to avoid any future computer-oriented crimes from taking place. Continue reading →

Hardware Store Finds Safe Harbor

Hammer time.

A popular hardware store has settled a class action lawsuit after some tooling around with their sales process. Harbor Freight, which has locations across the United States, agreed that they may have misstated discounts and coupon offers over a 4 year period. The settlement reads that anyone who purchased a product from Harbor Freight between April 8 2011 and Dec 15 2016 are now eligible to a reward. Customers will have their choice of 20% of the purchased product’s amount in cash, or 30% in Harbor Freight gift cards. The lawsuit, Beck v Harbor Freight, was filed at the Court of Common Pleas in Lake County, OH. Read more

Sony Presses Reset Button, Avoids Lawsuit

Play on, player

A few years ago, Sony’s free-to-play online service, known as the Playstation Network, was compromised by a rogue group of hackers. Personal and private data, including credit card information, was stolen from about 70 million PSN users. A class action was filed immediately in San Diego, California as Sony scrambled to stop the bleeding. Luckily for this entertainment giant, the hot-button lawsuit has been dismissed. Unfortunately for the Playstation 3 faithful, a judge has decided to have the case thrown out, citing Sony’s Privacy Policy, which all PSN users agree to, being compliant with the consumer protection laws. Read more

Papa John’s Ordered to Give Up the Dough

Papa John’s: It’s probably not better pizza.

Whoever thought text messages offering special deals on pizza would be a bad thing? A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Papa John’s for sending illegal messages to their potential clients. Plaintiffs are claiming that while they originally provided their cell phone numbers to the take-out pizza chain, they did not consent to receive advertisements via text message. Some members of the class-action suit have reported to receive multiple texts back-to-back, and also at odd hours of the night. The third party mobile marketing agency, OnTime4U, is also a defendant in the suit. Plaintiffs are seeking compensation at the rate of $500-$1500 per text message.