Consumer Protection
Fighting Fraud
As a leading consumer protection advocacy group, the CDLU has defended consumers, many of whom are people of color, from unscrupulous businesses and inept government agencies, while bringing meaningful reform and changes to the private sector.
In 2001, the year the CDLU was founded, we took on the hospital sector for price-gouging uninsured patients. Hospitals were charging the uninsured three to seven times more than what the hospital would accept as payment-in-full from a health insurance company.
Our work led to three U.S. Congressional hearings and investigations of hospital billing practices.
- In 2006, the American Hospital Association hoisted a white flag and declared an end to price-gouging and the mistreatment of the uninsured.
- The CDLU has also taken on the pharmaceutical industry for spending hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing deadly products, but not spending a penny on educating the public about warnings. We worked with legal counsel to obtain a multi-million-dollar settlement.
- In 2016, the CDLU took on General Motors for selling automobiles without airbags in Mexico, even though they alleged safety was a priority. Three months after our report, GM changed their practices and required all automobiles to have airbags in Mexico.
- For over two decades, the CDLU has worked with legal teams to take businesses to task for negligence in causing deadly wildfires, for selling defective or intentionally mislabeled products, for invading consumers’ privacy, and for scamming unsuspecting consumers with hidden or bogus fees.
- In 2022, the CDLU took on Wall Street and won over $400,000 for a Mexican farmer who was lied to and defrauded by an alleged dishonest and unethical stockbroker.
- Staff of the CDLU have testified or provided documentation to several governmental bodies and agencies about consumer protection issues including the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, the California Legislature, the Pennsylvania Civil Rights Enforcement Division, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the Chicago City Council, the Florida Legislature, and others.