Today we’re announcing settlements with Sprint and Verizon, who illegally billed consumers over a hundred million dollars in unauthorized third-party charges. If approved, these settlements will return $120 million directly to affected consumers.Let's give credit where credit is due. Elizabeth Warren came up with the idea for a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before she was elected to be the Senator from Massachusetts. President Barack Obama fought to have it included in the Dodd-Frank Act and appointed Richard Corday to run it. This announcement is something they can all take credit for.
Sprint’s and Verizon’s customers became victims by clicking on ads for “free” digital content such as ring tones or daily horoscopes, and were then charged without their consent. Many people did not know that third parties could add charges to their wireless bills. The illegal billing often continued undetected for months.
Sprint’s and Verizon’s billing systems invited illegal third-party charges and the companies did little or nothing to root them out. Sprint and Verizon also failed to properly track and respond to consumer complaints about these charges, while collecting hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue by serving as payment processors for these third-party companies. Sprint and Verizon received a 30-40 percent cut of every third-party charge.
Under the Dodd-Frank Act, we can hold companies, including payment processors and lenders, accountable when they engage in unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
A Victory for Both President Obama and Senator Warren
The disagreement between President Obama and Senator Warren about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement is soaking up a lot of energy in political circles right now. But we would be remiss if we ignored the fact that something big happened this week that both of them are probably celebrating. Here's an announcement from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:
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EricFive at TOD posted this:
ReplyDeleteThis procedural vote for the trade deal that was voted down yesterday is a primer class in how the GOP’s propaganda arm, otherwise known as the MSM (left, right and center) operates to propogate an anti-PBO narrative. They know damn well that the Dems voted en mass to defeat the measure because two provisions involving African-trade and currency manipulation were excluded by Mitch McConnell. They know that these measures have nothing to do with the Warrenites complaints, and they know that once these two issues are resolved there is enough Dem support to pass the fast track authority bill. They know that the Warrenites do not have the numbers to stop the trade deal. But instead of just relaying these rather simple FACTS, the MSM decided to purposefully confuse the public by calling this a “stinging rebuke” of PBO and furthered a “Dems in disarray” narrative that is the MSM’s specialty. It was handy that the feud between Elizabeth and PBO had been in the press during the preceding weeks, so this vote could be twisted into some kind of victory for her. This is how propaganda works. It is telling that every MSM outlet parrotted the same deceitful spin, as if reading from the same GOP approved script.
I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
DeleteI am shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
DeleteSen Warren has wore out her welcome with me
ReplyDelete