#consumer protection

#consumer protection

Oil distributors, retailers and wholesalers have been accused of taking advantage of the crisis in the Middle East to price gouge Irish consumers, farmers and businesses. Home-heating oil prices have now shot up by €500 for 1,000 litres since last week, with petrol and diesel also surging at the pumps.

She told the committee the lack of regulation of managing agents was "a real problem" and said the government needed "to go further and harder" on proposals by Lord Best in 2019 to introduce an independent regulator.

T-Mobile hit back at Verizon on Monday in Manhattan federal court, filing a countersuit that accuses Verizon's 'Better Deal' campaign of luring customers into stores with promises of big savings and then steering them toward pricier add-ons. What started as a marketing spat has now turned into a full-on legal fight over whether in-store upselling crosses the line into deceptive advertising.

Samsung uses automated content recognition (ACR) technology, which can capture hundreds of images of what's on your TV screen each minute, without first obtaining Texans' expressed, informed consent. As mentioned earlier, the concern is that Samsung would use this information for targeted advertising. Although Samsung has disclosures in place and TV owners can opt out of ACR, Paxton finds that the disclosures are inadequate, vague, and run afoul of state law.

The group believes that proposed requirements for reverse mortgage counseling agencies to be physically located in the state, and for their services to be conducted in person, will create a severe and unnecessary chilling effect on seniors' ability to obtain a reverse mortgage in New Jersey.

In a complaint filed in California federal court, the consumer protection agency said the company misled drivers about how it calculated their base pay, tips and special incentive earnings opportunities. The company also didn't tell customers that tips wouldn't be fully paid to the person who made their delivery, the lawsuit alleges.

Calls where no one responds are rarely accidental. In many cases, they are automated reconnaissance events. Fraud operations run at industrial scale, and before they invest human effort in a target, they validate that a number is active and answered by a real person.

UK telecoms companies are retiring traditional landline services and replacing them with internet-based home phone connections. The industry has set a deadline of January 2027 to complete this switch with roughly 3.2 million homes still to move over. While the digital switchover has been straightforward for most households, for some vulnerable customers, such as those with telecare devices, it has been very stressful.

Tech execs are expected at the White House next week to sign what President Trump called a "ratepayer protection pledge" during Tuesday's State of the Union. OpenAI and Amazon are taking part in the "pledge" initiative, the companies confirmed. Others expected include Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI and Oracle, Fox News reported.

Genice Horta, 51, said that neither the shelter nor the rescue group she worked for told her the dog, a Belgian Malinois named Maximus, had bitten a teenager and a shelter employee, sending both to the hospital. After six surgeries to repair the bones and nerves in her right arm, Horta was left with permanent damage, according to a brief by her attorneys in the lawsuit she filed in 2022.

This loot box model that Valve has developed - charging an individual for a chance to win something of value based on luck alone - is quintessential gambling, prohibited under New York's Constitution and Penal Law. Valve has made "tens of millions of dollars" selling loot box keys to "thousands" of New York residents and has "made millions of dollars more in commissions from New Yorkers who sold virtual items obtained from loot boxes."

The bulk of the £200 (10%) saving from a year ago is not real. It's a transfer of bad climate policy costs from bills to taxes. Hiding the problem, not solving it. This means future taxpayers, your children, are now subsidising old wind farms and failed heat pump promotion campaigns, rather than stopping the waste.

A borrower visits an online money lender's website or app, fills out a digital application form, and uploads the required documents - typically a NRIC, proof of income, and recent bank statements. The lender reviews the application (often within the same day), and if approved, presents a loan contract with the terms spelled out: principal, interest rate, repayment schedule, and fees. Once both parties sign, the funds are disbursed directly to the borrower's bank account.

West Virginia has filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of allowing the distribution and storage of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in iCloud. In a lawsuit filed on Thursday, West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey claims that by abandoning a CSAM detection system in favor of end-to-end encryption, iCloud has become a "secure frictionless avenue for the possession, protection, and distribution [of] CSAM," violating the state's consumer protection laws.

In the second amended complaint, Guo claims that after she was the victim of identity theft, the financial institution and credit bureau defendants continued to report and attempt to collect fraudulent debts after she provided proof of the fraud. In doing such she alleges that they violated federal and California consumer protection laws by failing to properly investigate and correct her credit reports.

"From the moment Katie set foot in my consumer law class, I knew that she would be a warrior for working families," Warren said in a statement, citing Porter's work on the foreclosure crisis as well as her questioning of corporate leaders and members of the Trump administration while wielding a white board in hearings when she represented an Orange County district in Congress.

The Commission said it would investigate Shein for "addictive design, the lack of transparency of recommender systems, as well as the sale of illegal products, including child sexual abuse material." Shein's platform is addictive because it uses points and rewards for engagement, the Commission said in the press release, which could jeopardize consumer well-being. Shein, a Chinese fast fashion brand, is headquartered in Singapore.

The UK government claims a new Telecoms Consumer Charter will stop customers being hit by unexpected bill increases and offer clearer pricing when signing up to deals. Britain's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) says major telco providers - BT, Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), the newly conjoined VodafoneThree, Sky, and TalkTalk - have signed up to new commitments under the charter. The charter, however, appears to be nothing more than a voluntary code of conduct with no legal enforcement.

Uncontrolled rat infestations, thousands of dollars lost in destroyed items, misleading advertising and unnoticed rate increases are just some of the issues Extra Space Storage renters have dealt with for years, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the New York City government. The civil action is the first filed by the city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) against a self-storage company, and comes as the agency pledges to be more aggressive in its efforts to hold the industry to account.

Federal agencies said Colony Ridge used misleading sales tactics, including misrepresentations about flooding risks, and failed to verify borrowers' ability to repay, which contributed to high foreclosure rates. The settlement reached with the DOJ, CFPB and Texas OAG marks the DOJ's first predatory mortgage lending case and the CFPB's first federal court lawsuit involving the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA).

Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

Fashion weeks around the world are dominated by four main shows: New York, Paris, Milan, and London. But in 2020, Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW) made a bold move that helped it garner attention. It launched a framework with nearly 20 sustainability standards that fashion brands must meet to participate. The choice came at a time when fashion's sustainability practices were under increased scrutiny.

The conference convened Organic & Natural Health members, board leaders, and industry stakeholders from across the supply chain. It opened with a keynote from Debra Short, executive director of , who reflected on the organization's history and reinforced the critical role independent retailers play as the frontline for consumer education and access. During the event, SENPA and Short were presented with the Organic & Natural Health Association Champion Award, honoring a longstanding commitment to advocacy, education, and compassion in support of independent natural products retailers.

If I could move, I would to a place without a heat network. But I can't while this debt is hanging over me, says Anja Georgiou. The mother lives with her family in a rented flat in the River Gardens development in Greenwich in south-east London where, three years ago, residents were shocked to be presented with a surprise 200,000 bill for heating and hot water.