Consumer Protection

From E. coli-infected romaine lettuce to Salmonella-tainted beef, contaminated foods lead to illnesses that sicken as many as 1 in 6 Americans annually. U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s new report How Safe is Our Food?, released today, reveals how fundamental flaws in our current food safety system have led to a jump in these recalls since 2013.

While we are glad that Fiat Chrysler is paying something for damaging the health of Americans and deceiving customers, this settlement does not go far enough. It neither ensures these violations of the public trust won’t happen again nor makes consumers whole.

On Friday, Ford expanded a recall of its cars with Takata airbag inflators for the fourth time, broadening it by an additional 953,000 vehicles. Tano Toussaint, Consumer Watchdog Associate, responds.

Here is our statement about today's announced Wells Fargo settlement.

Yesterday, The New York Times published the results of an investigation alleging that Facebook allowed big tech partners including Netflix and Spotify to access users’ personal data -- including private Facebook messages -- and ignored an FTC consent decree requiring users’ consent.

In light of recent, high profile data breaches at Marriott and Quora and a new government report about Equifax’s breach, consumer group U.S. PIRG Education Fund is launching an online campaign to protect consumers as they use their credit and debit cards to travel and buy gifts this holiday season.

Today, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released the results of its investigation into the 2017 Equifax data breach. Mike Litt, consumer campaign director for the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, issued the following statement, which includes steps that consumers can take to protect themselves from identity theft.