Progressive Agenda

Consumer Protection Policy

Our values: Justice, equal justice, civil justice, equal opportunity, fairness, fair rules, fair markets, level playing field, security, safety

Our vision: We need a marketplace that is fair to everyone. That requires fundamental rules to ensure consumer products are safe and the terms of sales and investments are open and honest. In four ways, we need to guarantee that everyone plays by the same fair rules by: (1) ensuring that food is safe, drugs are pure, and products are free from dangerous defects; (2) compelling all businesses to follow basic rules of economic decency; (3) protecting individuals’ private information; and (4) guaranteeing justice for average Americans and small businesses in civil litigation. 

Safeguard consumer product safety

The federal government created consumer product safety law piecemeal, beginning with minimum standards for flammable fabrics in the 1950s. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, authorized in 1972, provides the most protection on the federal level, but it’s still not enough. Thus, states also provide a layer of protection, such as California’s Safe Cosmetics Act, Washington’s Children’s Safe Products Act, bans on toxic chemicals in children’s products, restrictions on genetically engineered foods, and numerous state regulations about the handling and preparation of food.

Outlaw unfair practices

Markets benefit society only when the same rules are fairly applied and vigorously enforced on everyone. States, cities and counties play a big role in preventing monopolistic, unfair or fraudulent practices. Recently, there has been a particular urgency to regulate financial services by limiting predatory mortgage lending and payday lending; stopping unnecessary property foreclosures and unfair debt collection practices; and controlling the marketing of credit cards, debit cards, and pre-paid cards.

Protect privacy from business

Technology is advancing at a phenomenal rate and it is causing new problems for individuals who want to protect their privacy. Businesses are creating and often selling data profiles about millions of Americans—including where we go on the Internet, what we buy, what we’re interested in, and even where we physically are or have been. So, many jurisdictions have implemented special protections against identity theft and other violations of privacy.

Protect the civil justice system

There has been a decades-long attack on the rights of average Americans to sue businesses for wrongdoing. Called “tort reform,” this effort isn’t “reform” at all; it is a cruel shifting of costs from rich companies that caused injuries to the unfortunate people who were injured. States can push back and make their courts fairer by discouraging contract clauses that require forced arbitration or waivers of injunctive relief, and by providing punitive damages and class action relief through legislation that creates minimum standards of contract fairness.

FEATURED POLICIES FOR 2024

Protect tenants’ right to collective action

For residential tenants, collective action is often the most effective, or only way to solve legitimate grievances against a landlord. And yet, some landlords harass, intimidate, and retaliate against residents who attempt to organize their fellow tenants. Based on laws in California, New York, Seattle and the District of Columbia, the Tenants Right to Organize Act enumerates specific activities that residents must be allowed to engage in, without penalty, for establishing and operating a tenant organization.

Modernize small claims court jurisdiction

Most states limit the jurisdiction of small claims courts to complaints involving less than $10,000. In today’s economy, that’s just too low to be a substantial benefit to average Americans. The Small Claims Court Modernization Act increases jurisdiction to cases involving up to $25,000. This statute also encourages mediation to settle cases as fairly as possible.

Guarantee the right to repair

The marketers of electronic products often make it impractical for consumers to take these products to local repair shops. By requiring manufacturers to make information available to owners and independent repair providers, the Digital Right to Repair Act ensures that, on fair and reasonable terms, owners are able to get the documentation, parts and tools needed to fix and maintain such equipment.

Outlaw price gouging during emergencies

Because of climate change, extreme weather events have become common. Any part of the country may see the next emergency. Sadly, it is not unusual for sellers to try to make windfall profits during hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires and floods, and most states do not have an effective law to protect consumers. The Protection from Price Gouging During Emergencies Act deters price gouging by placing a percentage limit on the amount that certain products and services can increase in price.

Protect against unlawful evictions

An illegal eviction is when a landlord uses force to evict a renter instead of following the eviction laws of that jurisdiction. Unfortunately, many landlords have lost patience and conducted a stunning number of illegal evictions over the past year. The Protection Against Unlawful Evictions Act creates an expedited timeline for courts to hear and remedy cases of illegal eviction.

Protect customers’ private information

Corporations possess a tremendous amount of personal information about customers and potential customers. When these companies are hacked, individuals may have their money, credit and identities stolen. Massive data breaches have become painfully common, from Microsoft and Marriott to AIS and CAM4. To ensure the security of customer records, the Data Privacy Protection Act requires that any business that handles or stores the personal information of any resident of the state must meet certain security standards to protect the information.

Limit the use of personal information by ISPs

In 2016, the Federal Communications Commission established rules to limit how Internet service providers (ISPs) like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, can use a customer’s personal information. For sensitive data, ISPs needed active permission from the customer before using geographic location, children’s information, health information, financial information, Social Security numbers, web browsing history, app usage history, or the content of a customer’s communications. For less-sensitive personal data, ISPs needed to allow customers to opt-out. But in early 2017, Congress and the President overturned those FCC rules. States can protect their own residents with the Internet Privacy Protection Act, which forbids ISPs from using or selling sensitive personal information without consent.

Protect residents from unwanted robocalls

Americans everywhere are being subjected to a flood of unwanted robocalls—a total of about 200 million such calls per day. States can do something about it by enacting legislation, similar to Maine’s, that bans most automated and prerecorded robocalls. At the same time, the statute prohibits telemarketers from using false or misleading caller IDs, a tactic called “spoofing.”

Stop zombie debt collection

The debt collection business is booming, but many collection company practices are questionable. “Zombie debt” occurs when collection agencies buy expired debt from the original vendor or credit card company for pennies on the dollar. Then they try to trick consumers who do not understand the debt is expired into paying or “acknowledging” the debt, thereby restarting the statute of limitations that barred the original vendor from collecting. Some jurisdictions, like Washington, have passed laws against zombie debt collection practices.

Regulate prepaid debit cards

Every year, Americans spend more than $100 billion on prepaid gift cards for retail stores, restaurants and “universal” prepaid debt cards like Visa. The federal Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act) provides a number of important consumer protections. But many states have adopted versions of the Prepaid Card Consumer Protection Act that go beyond the federal law to ban expiration dates, prohibit service fees, and/or allow customers to get cash when a card’s value falls to less than $5 or $10.

Limiting waivers in form contracts

Hidden in the fine print of many form contracts are provisions that unfairly benefit the vendor when the customer has a valid complaint about the product or service bought. For example, many such contracts force individuals to mandatory arbitration, a system that is stacked in favor of the defendant. States can ban the waiver of rights in certain cases or adopt a sunshine law like California’s disclosure of arbitration outcomes.

Regulate pet insurance

More than four million pets, mostly cats and dogs, are covered by their own health insurance policies. Pet insurance is becoming a big industry; premiums across the U.S. total more than $2.5 billion. And yet, pet insurance is nearly unregulated and it’s difficult for potential customers to know what they’re really buying. The Pet Insurance Act, based on model legislation from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, creates a legal framework for the sale of health insurance for pets.

Safe cosmetics

Many cosmetics contain carcinogens and toxic chemicals, and more than 20,000 cosmetic products contain ingredients which have never been tested for safety by any publicly-accountable institution. The Safe Cosmetics Act, enacted by California in 2005, requires disclosure of the ingredients in cosmetics, investigation into toxicity, notification to the public, and reports to the state occupational safety authorities when the health of beauty care workers may be at risk.