FAQs

1.) Why should New York update its consumer protection law?

New York’s general consumer protection law has not been amedned in over 40 years. Currently, New York only bans deceptive business conduct, and only when it is directed at consumers at large. Worse, the penalty is weak—just $50—and people can’t band together to bring a class action. New York should ban unfair and abusive business conduct, protect small businesses and tenants, and impose real consequences for violations.

2.) What does this issue have to do with me?

Every New Yorker who has any dealing with a business will benefit from this law. Whether you rent an apartment, seek mortgage refinancing, admit a loved one to a nursing home, purchase a car, furniture, or cell phone, need immigration assistance, deal with a debt collector or servicer, or contract with vendors for your own business. You should be treated fairly and honestly. You should not be exploited.

So if, for example, your landlord consistently overcharges you for rent, with a stronger consumer protection law, you would be able to get back your money, as well as a penalty of $1,000, and your landlord would have to cover your attorney’s fees.

But because scams constantly evolve, it is impossible to ban them one by one. That’s why New York needs a catch-all standard of fair business, just like 42 other states have.

3.) How does a strong consumer protection law advance racial justice?

Predatory business practices target and extract wealth from people of color, in communities with fewer safe options due to past and present discrimination. In addition, discriminatory practices are themselves unfair and abusive. Banning these practices, and giving the individuals harmed the power to enforce the law and get their money back, is a necessary step towards racial justice.

4.) Isn’t “unfair” vague?

Big Business says the ban on unfair business conduct is vague and impossible to comply with. But the unfairness ban is a time-tested standard and well developed by the courts. Businesses know how to comply with it because they already do throughout the country.

Some examples of business conduct that is unfair but not deceptive are:

• A student loan servicer steers borrowers to the most expensive repayment options.
• A nursing home collects bills from family members who never signed agreements.
• An auto dealer refuses to return a customer’s trade-in vehicle until a deal is finalized.
• A credit reporting agency recklessly exposes our personal information to theft.
• A landlord refuses to make repairs in order to push out its rent-stabilized tenants.

5.) Will amending New York's consumer protection law hurt businesses?

No, it will help them. Small business owners driven to bankruptcy by predatory lenders and commercial landlords need protection, too. And allowing bad actors to run amok puts honest companies at a competitive disadvantage.

Businesses that already comply with this well-defined standard throughout the country have never identified a single desirable product withheld from the market due to uncertainty about whether it would be considered unfair.

As Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha stated after similar legislation passed in his state in 2021, “Businesses that do it the right way have nothing to fear from this statute.”

6.) Who would oppose this?

Big Business, including the insurance industry and car dealers. They know that New York is one of the last states where they can exploit customers with impunity.