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Blog Post

Apple corrects course on Right to Repair | Aaron Colonnese

The CFPB Wants Your Help Investigating BigTech Payment Apps | Ed Mierzwinski

The CFPB has asked BigTech giants including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, PayPal, and Square to answer questions about their payment system practices. The CFPB has also asked consumers, small businesses and others for comments (including complaints), which are due on December 6. Learn more.

Graphic from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine's first crawl of the new CFPB's new website, February 8, 2011.

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Blog Post

The bikes that last 4 months | Nathan Proctor

How to spot an unfixable bike designed for the dump

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News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Antibiotics

Medical professionals urge McDonald’s to reduce antibiotic use in its beef supply chain

More than 125 medical professionals organized by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund sent a letter to McDonald’s Thursday urging the company to meet its 2018 commitment to reduce antibiotic use in its beef supply chain. The coalition delivered the letter at the start of World Antibiotic Awareness Week to stress the urgency of taking action to stop overusing our life-saving medicines in agriculture. Otherwise, the drugs may no longer heal sick people.

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News Release | Solid Waste

STATEMENT: Apple concedes to Right to Repair movement, reverses ban on selling parts to consumers

Apple reversed its longstanding policy against selling spare parts, providing repair instructions, and making repair software tools available to customers.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Antibiotics

Medical professionals urge McDonald’s to reduce antibiotic use in its beef supply chain

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News Release | Solid Waste

STATEMENT: Apple concedes to Right to Repair movement, reverses ban on selling parts to consumers

Apple reversed its longstanding policy against selling spare parts, providing repair instructions, and making repair software tools available to customers.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Consumer Protection

Statement: Bipartisan introduction of Veterans and Consumers Fair Credit Act marks important step in stopping the debt trap

The Veterans and Consumers Fair Credit Act (VCFCA) was reintroduced in the House Committee on Financial Services on Monday. This bill would limit interest rates on loans and go a long way toward protecting consumers, including veterans, who are often victimized by predatory lenders.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Transportation

Statement: Infrastructure bill will mean cleaner air, water and energy for U.S.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House of Representatives voted 228-206 to build a bridge to a brighter future by passing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on Friday. This major bipartisan package will improve our transportation and power infrastructure and ensure clean water and broadband access across the United States over the coming decades.

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News Release | US PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Tips

Onions identified as cause of nationwide Salmonella outbreak

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Wednesday evening that a nationwide Salmonella outbreak stems at least in part from whole onions imported from Chihuahua, Mexico, and distributed in this country by ProSource Inc.

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Result | Democracy

Delivering one million petitions to President Obama on dark money

U.S. PIRG joined a broad coalition to deliver one million petitions from Americans, including U.S. PIRG members and supporters, calling on President Obama to shine a light on dark money, or secret political spending.

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Result | Consumer Protection

30 years of toy safety

For the past thirty years, our sister organization U.S. PIRG Education Fund has taken a close look at the safety of toys sold in stores. Their reports have led to more than 150 regulatory actions. In November 2015, they released our 30th annual Trouble in Toyland report.

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Result | Democracy

Giving more Americans a greater voice in our elections

In our democracy, the size of your wallet shouldn’t determine the volume of your voice. In 2015, we helped win reforms in Maine and Seattle to ensure that more Americans have a greater say in our elections. Seattle’s Initiative-122 empowers small donors with “democracy vouchers” that can be donated to local candidates and lowers the cap on contributions. In Maine, the state’s Clean Elections Act was improved by strengthening campaign finance disclosure laws and offering qualifying candidates increased public funding.

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Result | Public Health

Convincing McDonald’s and Subway to protect public health

In 2015, bolstered by the support of more than 100,000 members and supporters, we convinced both McDonald’s and Subway to take action to protect public health. In March, just two days after we delivered more than 30,000 petitions to McDonald’s headquarters, the company announced that they would stop serving chicken raised on medically-important antibiotics. And in October, after more than 100,000 called on the chain to take action, Subway announced a similar policy for all the meat they serve.

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Result | Higher Ed

Protecting students from unfair bank fees

We helped win protections for students from unfair fees associated with campus bank accounts. The new rules, released by the U.S. Department of Education, ban some of the worst and most predatory fees that students encounter from banks.

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Pages

Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Tips

Make the ringing stop

Research by PIRG Education Fund shows that among 49 of the largest phone companies nationwide (those that can serve 1 million or more), only 16 have reported to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that they have completely implemented anti-robocall technology. What does this mean? It means the industry isn’t doing nearly as much as hoped to fight the crime that for years has caused so much heartache and aggravation among consumers nationwide.

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Report | US PIRG Education Fund | Antibiotics

Chain Reaction VI

The Chain Reaction VI report and scorecard ranks America’s top restaurant chains on their policies relating to antibiotic use in their beef supply chains.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Looking Inward

We surveyed nearly 1,000 personal care products from 26 popular cosmetics companies and scored them on ingredient safety and disclosure. The major takeaway: most companies need to do a lot more to inform their customers about what ingredients are in their products.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Warranties in the Void II

An updated survey of warranties from 43 companies finding all tell customers they void warranties for independent repair. The continued problem of warranties wearing thin underscores the need for action on Right to Repair.

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Report | US PIRG Education Fund | COVID-19

Nursing home safety during COVID: Staff shortages

For most of last year, more than 200,000 people at any given time were in nursing homes that themselves acknowledged they were suffering from staff shortages.

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Blog Post

Apple corrects course on Right to Repair | Aaron Colonnese

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Blog Post | Financial Reform

The CFPB Wants Your Help Investigating BigTech Payment Apps | Ed Mierzwinski

Graphic from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine's first crawl of the new CFPB's new website, February 8, 2011.

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Blog Post

The bikes that last 4 months | Nathan Proctor

How to spot an unfixable bike designed for the dump

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Blog Post | Solid Waste

Let’s 'Buy Less, Give More' this holiday season | Aaron Colonnese

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Blog Post

Surprise ambulance bills take patients for a ride | Alex Sherman

“This experience has scared me off from calling an ambulance unless someone is bleeding out in front of me," said a Connecticut student about their ambulance billing experience.

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Blog Post

House Oversight Committee finds Juul targeting kids

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi got right to the point as he opened a House committee's first hearing on the role of Juul in the teen vaping epidemic.

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Blog Post | Antibiotics

Taco Bell the latest chain to reduce antibiotics in its meat supply

You might know Taco Bell for silly ads asking you to "think outside the bun." But the company is getting serious about at least one thing: reducing the overuse of antibiotics.

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Blog Post | Public Health

Amazon: Take responsibility for unsafe products

Most of us expect that the products we buy in stores are safe to use. It turns out that's not always the case with Amazon.

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Blog Post

Rather than require warning labels for Roundup, Trump administration moves to prohibit them

Does the public have a right to know that researchers for the World Health Organization say the widely used herbicide Roundup is a probable carcinogen?

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

In the wake of the Capital One data breach, Ed Mierzwinski and Adam Garber explain how to protect your credit

Were you affected by the Capital One breach, one of the largest thefts of data from any bank to date?

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Blog Post

Apple corrects course on Right to Repair

Blog Post

The CFPB Wants Your Help Investigating BigTech Payment Apps

Graphic from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine's first crawl of the new CFPB's new website, February 8, 2011.

Blog Post

The bikes that last 4 months

How to spot an unfixable bike designed for the dump

News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Medical professionals urge McDonald’s to reduce antibiotic use in its beef supply chain

News Release

STATEMENT: Apple concedes to Right to Repair movement, reverses ban on selling parts to consumers

Apple reversed its longstanding policy against selling spare parts, providing repair instructions, and making repair software tools available to customers.

Solid Waste

Apple corrects course on Right to Repair

Once one of the most visible opponents to repair access, Apple has now reversed its longstanding policy against making spare parts and repair software tools available to customers. The commitment came just days after the company pledged to stop deactivating Face ID for iPhone screens repaired independently.

Consumer Tips

Trouble In Toyland

The 36th annual Trouble in Toyland report calls attention to counterfeit toys evading safety rules and other issues online and in stores. Check out our tips on how to identify potentially unsafe toys and to minimize the risk in your home.

Solid Waste

Let’s 'Buy Less, Give More' this holiday season

For many, this holiday season will feel like a return to normal. But what if we didn't return to piles of presents and even bigger piles of waste? We don't have to, and U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s “Buy Less, Give More” guide has suggestions for what to do instead.

Health Care

PIRG applauds strong rules against surprise medical bills

A landmark PIRG-backed law protecting consumers from surprise medical bills just got some teeth. Newly proposed regulations dictating how to enforce the federal No Surprises Act will help ensure that payment disputes between insurers and out-of-network providers don't result in extra costs for the consumer.

STOP THE OVERUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS

The World Health Organization has identified antibiotic resistance as one of the top 10 global health threats. That's why reducing antibiotic overuse in food production is so important.

TAKE ACTION
How safe is our food?

Nationwide recalls ranging from romaine lettuce to millions of pounds of beef to Ritz and Goldfish crackers underscore that there’s a growing public health crisis we need to address.

Find out
WATCH OUT FOR UNSAFE TOYS

Our “Trouble in Toyland” report found boron in slime, choking hazards without the proper warning labels, “connected” toys that pose a privacy risk and more.

GET THE FACTS
HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?

One year after Equifax announced the worst data breach in history, a U.S. House committee has recommended weakening data breach laws. Tell Congress to protect Americans, not Equifax.

TAKE ACTION