Fiat Chrysler Recalling 811K Dodge Jeep Vehicles Over Confusing Gear Shifts

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Two months after federal safety regulators expanded their investigation into Fiat Chrysler vehicles after receiving more than 100 complaints about crashes and injuries resulting from drivers inadvertently leaving their vehicles in gear with the engine running, the carmaker is officially recalling 811,000 SUVs and sedans equipped with the confusing electronic gear shifter. 

Fiat Chrysler announced Friday that it would recall 811,586 model year 2012 to 2014 Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 sedans and model year 2014 to 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs in order to alleviate confusion about when the vehicle’s transmissions are in the “park” position.

The carmaker says the recall was initiated to “enhance” warnings and transmission shift strategy after an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Fiat Chrysler found some drivers have exited their vehicles without first selecting “PARK.”

According to a notice [PDF] filed by NHTSA, the investigation, which was first opened in August 2015, centers on vehicles equipped with Monostable electronic (E-shift) gearshifts.

The shift system in the affected vehicles operates electronically and the gear requested by the driver is transmitted from the shifter via the CAN Bus to the Transmission Control Module which makes the requested shift.

However, in some vehicles, the gearshift doesn’t actually move, but springs back to a centered or neutral position.

If a driver opens his or her door when the gearshift isn’t in “park,” a chime rings and a message pops up to alert them that the transmission is not in “park.”

The engine also will not turn off normally without the transmission in “park.”

“This function does not protect drivers who intentionally leave the engine running or those who do not realize that the engine is still running after an attempted shut-off,” investigators said in February.

As a result, drivers may exit the vehicle when the engine is running and the transmission is not in “park,” leaving the unattended vehicle to roll away, NHTSA states.

So far, the company says it is aware of 41 injuries related to the issue. Vehicles involved in those incidents were inspected and no evidence of equipment failure was found.

NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation previously announced it was aware of 314 consumer complaints about the issue, 267 submitted to Fiat Chrysler and 69 submitted via NHTSA’s database.

In all, investigators identified 121 incidents that have resulted in crashes or fires, with 30 incidents involving injuries to drivers or passengers such as a broken nose, facial lacerations requiring stitches, sprained knees, severe bruising, and trauma to legs.

“While in ‘park’ and idling, the vehicle rolled forward and struck objects 20 yards away causing $1,500 worth of damage to the right front bumper,” one complaint states. “My wife parked the car and had exited the vehicle, when after about 30 seconds it rolled forward and struck headstones in a cemetery. The car still indicated it was in ‘park’ when my son reentered the vehicle.”

In another complaint, the owner of a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee says the vehicles rolled from the “park” position without warning. When the woman attempted to stop the car, it ran over her hip, causing injuries that required medical attention.

Owners of affected Charger and Chrysler 300 vehicles offered similar experiences to NHTSA.

“When I put the car into ‘park,’ it pops into reverse,” the owner of a Chrysler 300 writes in a complaint. “Then I hit the engine off button, but since it is in reverse, the engine stays on. Then I open the door to get out, thinking the engine is off and the car is in ‘park,’ and it starts rolling backward. This has happened six times.”

The carmaker said on Friday the upcoming enhancements will combine warnings with a transmission-shift strategy to automatically prevent a vehicle from moving, under certain circumstances, even if the driver fails to select “PARK.”

Owners of affected vehicles will be notified when service becomes available.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Costco Expected To Raise Membership Fees By 10% Sometime In The Next Year

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The cost of a yearly Costco membership could be going up in the near future: according to analysts at UBS, the retailer is probably going to raise prices by 10% by late this year or early 2017.

Annual fees will go from $55 to $60 for a basic membership and from $110 to $120 for its executive membership, analysts said in a research note following a meeting with top Costco executives, reports Business Insider.

“If its comp were to dramatically slow in the meantime or if there were some major macro disruption, it might delay this increase,” analysts wrote. “But, it sounds like that’s not likely.”

This shouldn’t be a totally huge surprise to Costco members, as the warehouse club usually raises membership fees every five or six years. The last time that happened was in November 2011, so the timing is just about right.

Although Sam’s Club is a cheaper deal at $45 for its basic membership or $100 for the higher tier, our esteemed colleagues at Consumer Reports found that Costco is still slightly preferred by customers.

Costco memberships are about to get more expensive [Business Insider]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Daimler Reviewing U.S. Emissions Certification Process

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Shortly after it was revealed that Volkswagen equipped 11 million diesel-engine vehicles worldwide with emissions-cheating “defeat devices,” rumors began swirling that similar irregularities were present in Daimler vehicles. While the carmaker hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing by regulators, it announced today that it would review its emissions certification process and investigate possibly issues. 

The carmaker’s decision to look under the hood, so to say, came after the Department of Justice prompted Daimler, which makes Mercedes-Benz vehicles, to conduct an internal review, the Associated Press reports.

“Our conservative communication supports a constructive relationship with the authorities,” Daimler chief financial officer Bodo Uebber said during call on Friday. “I cannot give you further information.”

A spokesperson for the automaker said the company was contacted by the DOJ last week about examining its exhaust emissions certification process.

The probe comes after owners of the Mercedes-Benz BlueTEC diesel vehicles filed a class-action lawsuit that claims the cars are programmed in a way that lets them emit illegal levels of emissions, similar to diesels made by Volkswagen.

Owners claim that — much like Volkswagen — Daimler advertised “clean diesel” vehicles that were anything but clean.

According to the lawsuit, the vehicles’ technology shut down pollution controls when temperatures drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, producing nitrogen oxide emissions more than 65 times higher than Environmental Protection Agency standards permit.

The Daimler spokesperson says the internal investigation is unrelated to the lawsuit, which the company believes has no merit.

In addition to being asked to conduct an internal review, the EPA has also sought additional information about Daimler’s emissions process and levels.

Daimler Emissions Investigation Overshadows Earnings [The Associated Press]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Brides Claim Kay Jewelers Lost Or Ruined Their Engagement Rings

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For many brides and brides-to-be, an engagement ring isn’t just a flashy new piece of jewelry, it’s a physical reminder of a pretty huge life event. So it’s no surprise that some customers of Kay Jewelers were pretty upset when their rings disappeared, came back damaged, or were replaced with sub-par jewelry.

Buzzfeed News took a deep dive into Kay Jewelers’ Facebook page and tallied up a slew of complaints leveled at the company from customers regarding engagement rings.

Between Feb. 15 and April 21 this year, eight people said their inspection or certification records were misplaced; three got a worse diamond replacement; 22 said their repairs were shoddy or the ring came back looking worse than it did before; and six said their rings were lost when Kay sent them for repairs.

One bride said she didn’t particularly love jewelry, but she cherished her $21,000 engagement ring, which her husband had custom-made at Kay. They paid extra for an extended service plan, which required them to come in every six months to have the ring inspected in case there were loose stones that needed to be secured.

They recently brought the ring in for inspection, and a store employee told them a stone was loose, and it would need to be sent in for repairs. When the couple called to ask when they could get the ring back, they were told it had “disappeared.”

After she posted about it on Facebook, she finally got a call from a Kay representative offering her a nice diamond, but not one of the same quality her original had. She says all she really wants is her original ring back.

A Kay spokeswoman told Buzzfeed the company is looking into the situation and working with authorities on recovering it. She said Kay had “provided options that we are confident reflect commensurate value, and we are committed to collaborating with the guest on a satisfactory resolution.”

“It’s really devastating, because we could get a new ring, you can get new jewelry, but you can’t get back your original,” the bride told Buzzfeed.

Others complained that their rings did come back — they just looked worse when they did. Some said they got smaller stones, or diamonds with flaws in them. One couple gave up after multiple attempts to get their ring repaired correctly, and ordered a new ring from a different company.

Another common complaint on Kay’s Facebook page is that the company loses inspection or certification records. That means if the ring’s stones fall out, they won’t be covered under warranty, most likely.

“As part of our dedication to our guests, we provide inspections on jewelry under warranty every six months,” a Kay spokeswoman told Buzzfeed News when asked for comment on the complaints. “Guests are required to bring in the proper paperwork to be validated at each inspection so that we can be sure that we are keeping an accurate record of service. Upon completion of inspection, each guest will receive an inspection record document that they are able to take with them and keep with the original guarantee paperwork.”

Brides Say Their Engagement Rings Were Lost Or Ruined By Kay Jewelers [Buzzfeed News]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Federal & State Agencies Probing High Lead Levels In Cra-Z-Art Jewelry Kits

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Under federal law, the acceptable level of lead that can be present in a product is capped at 100 parts per million. A recent investigation by the New York Attorney General’s office found 10 times that level of lead in certain children’s jewelry toys sold by national retailers like Target, Walmart, and Amazon, and now federal regulators have opened a probe into the crafts. 

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office announced Friday that an investigation from his office found dangerously high levels of lead in several Cra-Z-Art jewelry making kits sold at Target, Kmart, Toys “R” Us, Amazon, and Walmart.

For two years, Schneiderman’s office has been pushing for retailers and manufacturers to make sure their products do not contain unsafe levels of toxic chemicals. As part of this larger probe, investigators purchased 10 Cra-Z-Art products from stores in the fall of 2015 and then again this past February.

Tests revealed that some of the wristbands contained as much as 980 parts per million of lead, far greater than the 100 parts per million allowed under federal law.

Specifically, the Cra-z-Art jewelry-making kits found to contain wristbands with lead levels exceeding the federal children’s safety lead limit were:

• Shimmer N’ Sparkle Cra-Z-Art Cra-Z-Jewelz Gem Creations Ultimate Gem Machine
• Shimmer N’ Sparkle Cra-Z-Art Cra-Z-Jewelz Gem Creations Gem Charm and Slider Bracelets
• My Look Cra-Z-Art Cra-Z-Jewelz Gem Creations Ultimate Gem Machine

Exact lead levels and stores where the products were purchased can be found on the AG’s website. 

“Manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers all have responsibility to ensure that products intended for use by children are safe,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “My office’s discovery of high-lead products on store shelves in New York points to an alarming breach in the safety net that is supposed to protect our children from dangerous chemicals.”

In addition to revealing the high levels of lead found in the products, Schneiderman announced on Friday that he would open an investigation to determine how these products ever reached store shelves.

Schneiderman is seeking [PDF] information on companies’ internal procedures and practices for interdicting products containing toxic chemicals before they reach the market, as well as their adherence to state and federal laws governing the safety of children’s products.

While Schnedierman’s office does not have the authority to recall products, he urged [PDF] the Consumer Product Safety Commission to use its power to do so.

CPSC Chairman Elliot Kaye told The New York Times in a statement that the agency had immediately opened an investigation into the Cra-Z-Art products after they were notified by the AG’s office of high lead levels.

“Just hours after receiving information about these jewelry-making kits, CPSC staff opened an investigation into the safety of these products,” Kaye said in a statement. “CPSC’s investigation will be thorough and swift, and we will certainly take all warranted steps to protect the public.”

Car-Z-Art vice president of advertising, Charlie Zakin tells the Times that the company was unaware of the AG’s tests, but noted that safety is its highest priority.

Retailers where the products were sold tell the Times that they would cooperate with any investigation into the products and their availability.

Walmart said it requires suppliers to meet “all applicable” safety standards, while Target and Kmart reaffirmed their commitment to safety. Target an Toys “R” Us said they would also look into the product independently.

Cra-Z-Art Toy Jewelry Kits Are Found to Have High Lead Levels [The New York Times]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

AT&T Launches Its Own $10 Internet Access Program For Low-Income Households

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AT&T is today making good on a promise it had to make to the FCC last year, announcing their new program to connect more poor Americans to the internet and bridge that infamous digital divide.

The FCC has a history of making ISPs provide inexpensive connections to low-income families as a merger condition. For example, Comcast’s Internet Essentials sprang into being as a merger condition when the cable behemoth bought NBCUniversal in 2011.

The AT&T / DirecTV merger, approved just last year, is no different. The FCC mandated, as part of their approval of that merger, that AT&T make available some kind of affordable access program to low-income consumers, and so AT&T has announced it is doing just that.

Expanding internet access to low-income individuals and families is both great and necessary, so let’s start with the kudos to AT&T for doing a good thing: they absolutely are. The more people that can access information online, the better off basically all of us are, and so every line matters.

Now with that said, let’s get into the details.

One key way in which AT&T Access differs from Comcast Internet Essentials has to do with eligibility: While Comcast says any household with at least one child getting free or reduced school lunch is a qualified low-income household, AT&T is instead using SNAP (food stamp) participation as their benchmark.

About 22 million households nationwide were participating in SNAP as of the most recent data (January, 2016), so any of those households in the 21 states where AT&T provides internet access are eligible.

That’s no small number, especially in context. For comparison, Comcast Internet Essentials has about 600,000 subscribing households, and 12 million households use Lifeline. AT&T is in a position to reach a whole lot of people, including single adults and seniors without young children in the home, and that’s a good thing.

But what are they going to be reached with, exactly?

AT&T says participating households will “get the fastest of three speed tiers — 10Mbps, 5Mbps or 3Mbps — available at their address,” which is kind of a hairy definition of access. “What’s available at your address” is going to be highly variable depending on, well, your address. Internet Essentials, meanwhile, is a uniform 10 Mbps across the board.

On the other hand, AT&T Access does at least also have variable pricing for those variable speeds; connecting at 10Mbps or 5Mbps will cost $10 per month, but connecting at 3Mbps will cost $5.

But neither Comcast’s nor AT&T’s maximum speeds meet’s the FCC’s aspirational 25 Mbps minimum definition for true, modern broadband. For that matter, even 3G mobile data — for which low-income consumers can soon also use their Lifeline credit — is probably going to be faster for many users than AT&T’s 3 or 5 Mbps offerings.

Also, like AT&T’s higher-paying customers, Access subscribers will also be subject to a potentially pricey data cap. The pricing structure being put in place in late May will cap service either at 100 or 300 GB per month, depending on connection speed, after which customers are charged $10 per every 50 GB used.

So on the one hand, AT&T is bringing cheap internet to several million households, which is great. And on the other hand, given the possibility of overage charges; the wane of wired access, with a matching dip in traditional desktop or laptop use; and the gain in mobile, device-based, wireless internet use, it’s hard to project what percentage of those households will actually see a point to AT&T’s new offering.

But still: the FCC asked, and the program has arrived. Perhaps it will help us chip away at digital inequality one more household at a time.

AT&T Setting Out to Connect More U.S. Residents to the Internet [AT&T official]

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

Microsoft & Google Continue Lovefest Agree To Drop Regulatory Complaints Against Each Other

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Google and Microsoft are building off the new lovey-dovey relationship they embarked last year on when they agreed to stop suing each other over patents: the two best friends you ever did meet are not promising to drop all pending regulatory complaints against each other across the globe.

The tech amigos are also pinky-swearing that when issues arise in the future, they’ll sit down and talk things out like the close buddies they are, before escalating the conflict by tattling to regulators, Re/code reports.

“Microsoft has agreed to withdraw its regulatory complaints against Google, reflecting our changing legal priorities,” a Microsoft representative said in a statement to Re/code. “We will continue to focus on competing vigorously for business and for customers.”

Google echoed its new BFF’s sentiments in a statement, saying that it will also withdraw any regulatory complaints it’s made.

“Our companies compete vigorously, but we want to do so on the merits of our products, not in legal proceedings.”

It’s unclear at which point the two exchanged friendship bracelets (they already each have half of a heart treads “Best Friends” on a necklace).

Re/code points out that the timing of the whole thing is perhaps noteworthy, as Google is under fire from European regulators who claim that the company is hurting competition and innovation. Microsoft isn’t taking a side on that case, or another inquiry from the EU into Google Search, and has canceled its membership with two groups that support antitrust actions over Google’s search business. Because that is what best friends do.

Microsoft, Google agree to stop complaining to regulators about each other [Re/code]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

U.S. Investigating Mitsubishi Over Falsified Fuel Mileage Data

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Two days after Mitsubishi revealed that employees manipulated mileage test data for 620,000 vehicles sold in Japan since 2013, U.S. regulators have opened their own investigation into the carmaker to find out if the same shenanigans occurred stateside.

Officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration directed Mitsubishi to hand over any information on its vehicles sold in the United States, Reuters reports.

“We’ve requested information from Mitsubishi about this issue,” a spokesman for NHTSA said, declining to specify which models the agency sought data for.

For now, there’s no evidence that Mitsubishi cars in the U.S. include the same fuel inaccuracies as the 625,000 small cars sold in Japan, which included some vehicles manufactured for Nissan.

According to Mitsubishi tire pressure data was manipulated to make mileage appear 5% to 10% better than it actually was for 157,000 Mitsubishi eK wagon and eK Space light passenger cars, and 468,000 Dayz and Dayz Roox vehicles produced for Nissan Motor Co.

Mitsubishi president Tetsuro Aikawa apologized for the falsified data on Wednesday, noting that while he was unaware the irregularities were happening, he felt responsible, the Associated Press reports.

“The wrongdoing was intentional,” Aikawa said. “It is clear the falsification was done to make the mileage look better. But why they would resort to fraud to do this is still unclear.”

The falsified data was first spotted by Nissan when the company was assessing the current model in preparation for its next-generation vehicle.

“In response to Nissan’s request, Mitsubishi admitted that data had been intentionally manipulated in its fuel economy testing process for certification,” Nissan said.

Both automakers have stopped the sale of the so-called minicars, which are generally popular in the country for their great mileage, the AP reports.

U.S. auto safety regulator looking into Mitsubishi fuel economy issue [Reuters]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Starbucks Isnt Seeing Any Of The Noise Expected Over Rewards Program Overhaul

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Despite the backlash from some customers over the recent changes in Starbucks’ My Rewards loyalty program, the company says the overhaul is going quite well, and that it hasn’t heard anything particularly worrisome. Well, not yet, at least.

This month, the Seattle-based coffee chain changed how it bestows rewards points, or “stars,” handing them out based on how much people spend, instead of how often they visit. For customers who buy a regular $2.50 coffee or other small items, they’ll now have to spend more to earn perks.

On the one hand, Starbucks seems confident that the change will drive up sales over the long term, and says that customer spending is up across loyalty program members.

“We are not seeing any of the noise that has been speculated on,” said Matt Ryan, Starbucks’ chief strategy officer, in a call with analysts reported by the Associated Press.

On the other hand, executives warned that there could be “noise” and “bumpiness” on the horizon over the next few quarters as customers adjust.

If all of the above seems to be a mixed message, well, you aren’t alone. When asked about the confusion signals the company seems to be sending, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz chimed in on the call, dubbing the whole conversation “very odd.”

“We’re building something so enduring and so unique I think it’s going to be one of the most significant changes to the equity of the brand,” Schultz said.

Starbucks expresses confidence in rewards overhaul [Associated Press]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Aeropostale Delisted For Abnormally Low Trading Price After Possible Bankruptcy Report

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Just a day after in-the-know sources revealed that teen-clothing retailer Aeropostale was headed for bankruptcy, the company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. 

Aeropostale confirmed on Friday that it had received written notice that the stock exchange had suspended trading effective immediately, noting that it “does not intend to appear the delisting determination.”

The move to delist came as the NYSE discovered Aeropostale’s stock was trading at “abnormally low” prices.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the stock was trading at just $0.15 on Thursday afternoon before it was halted pending news.

That news happened to be a report that suggested the retailer was prepping a bankruptcy filing after several years of low sales.

Aeropostale said on Friday that in lieu of being delisted from NYSE it would start trading on the over-the-counter market–colloquially (OTCQX) Best Market.

Sources close to the company said on Thursday that after years of losses, the teen-clothing retailer — which operates 800 stores nationally — is supposedly looking to reorganize under Chapter 11.

Still, the company continues to look for ways to avoid a filing.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Sling TV: Data Caps Are Cable Industry Tool To Sabotage Streaming Video

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Since Comcast began expanding its years-long “test” of data caps and overage fees, complaints to the FCC about these new limits have skyrocketed. And some streaming video companies say that data caps are causing customers to either limit their use or drop these services rather than risk paying a penalty for going over their monthly allotment.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, an executive with Dish Network — which operates the $20/month Sling TV streaming service that’s intended to be a low-cost cable replacement — says companies like Comcast and AT&T that put strict limits on customers’ data plans, or charge premium prices for plans without caps, are deliberately targeting the over-the-top video market.

Jeff Blum, Dish’s deputy general counsel, tells the Journal that Sling is a direct competitor to cable companies, and so the industry’s “incentive is to sabotage over-the-top services, and data caps is a primary tool in order to accomplish that.”

By Sling’s math, if you stream 5.5 hours of HD video to your TV a day, you’ll easily blow past Comcast’s 300 gigabyte monthly limit in a few weeks — and that is solely based on video use, no other downloading, streaming, or web-browsing of any other kind.

A rep for Netflix was tempered regarding the issue of data caps, but the message was similar: They aren’t any good for streaming services.

“Restrictive data caps are an inefficient way to manage a network,” says the rep, “and have the potential to inhibit Internet innovation.”

Meanwhile, Comcast’s own streaming services are not counted against users’ data caps — a practice that regulators are currently looking into.

But Comcast — always good for a laugh on a Friday — maintains that data caps are all about making the heaviest users pay and have nothing to do with making over-the-top video options less attractive.

“We everyday contribute to the use and the growth of the Internet,” a rep for Comcast tells the Journal. “There is absolutely no anticompetitive belief or objective.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Carnival Says Cuba Cruises To Move Ahead As Planned After Policy Shift

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Carnival Cruise Line’s Adonia ship will depart the Port of Miami as planned on May 1 with Cuban-Americans on board after the company reached an agreement with the government of the island nation. 

Earlier this week, Carnival announced that its maiden voyage to Cuba could be delayed unless the destination country doesn’t change a policy that prohibits nationals from returning to the island by sea.

Carnival CEO Arnold Donald said on Friday that the company had worked closely with Cuba to allow cruise ships to operate in a similar manner as current air charter operations to the island.

“We made history in March, and we are a part of making history again today,” Donald said. “More importantly, we are contributing to a positive future. This is a positive outcome and we are extremely pleased.”

The policy change comes a day after a Miami judge said he would consider a lawsuit against Carnival.

The lawsuit challenged Carnival’s refusal to allow Cuban-born consumers to book trips on the upcoming voyages, calling the policy discriminatory. The company had said at the time that it had to adhere to Cuban law.

Carnival reversed that stance earlier this week, announcing it would begin accepting reservations from people born in Cuba in hopes that the Cuban government would overturn the prohibition on travel by ship before May 1.

Last month, Cuban authorities said they’d granted permission to Carnival for the 740-passenger Adonia’s inaugural voyage from Miami to Havana departing May 1.

The trips will be the first time in more than 50 years that a cruise ship has traveled from the U.S. to the island nation.

Travelers will set sail on seven-day cruises with Carnival’s Fathom brand, which offers cultural exchange programs. That’s one of the approved categories of travel to the island nation under new rules which allow for “people-to-people educational travel.”

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Uber Drivers Are Independent Contractors Will Receive Up To $100M In Settlement

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For the better part of three years, Uber drivers have sparred with the ride-sharing company over the status of their employment: are they independent contractor or actual employees? Today, Uber has agreed to settle two lawsuits over the issue, paying up to $100 million to the drivers who will remain independent contractors. 

Uber announced Thursday that it planned to settle the two lawsuits, paying $84 million to 385,000 drivers who sued the company in California and Massachusetts. The payout could increase by $16 million if Uber’s valuation reaches at least 1.5 times its current level when the company either goes public or is acquired.

While the payout may be a victory for the plaintiff drivers, Uber is walking away with what is likely the bigger win in the long-run — being able to continue to labeling drivers as independent contractors instead of employees.

The lawsuits alleged that drivers for Uber are misclassified employees, who should have their vehicle expenses covered by their “employer,” Uber.

The business model employed by Uber allowed the company to grow rapidly without the worry of covering driver expenses such as gas and mileage, or providing benefits such as health insurance, Social Security, overtime or sick days.

Drivers submitted declarations to the court back in 2015 saying, in part, that Uber misled them about the benefits that employees receive, such as having their employer pay part of their Social Security taxes, and having vehicle costs reimbursed.

The deal, which still needs to be approved by the court, would distribute the $84 million among drivers in California and Massachusetts who performed at least one trip up until the date of the preliminary settlement approval, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Payments will be determined based on miles driven with a passenger in the car, with drivers who logged more than 25,000 miles receiving $8,000 or more.

As part of the agreement, Uber agreed to make changes to its business practices, including creating a policy for deactivation of drivers. Instead of doing so at-will, Uber says it will provide drivers with warnings and give them opportunity to correct any issues before they’re taken off-line.

A panel will also be created so that drivers who feel they were unfairly terminated can appeal the decision.

While these changes won’t generally impact a passenger, one stipulation of the settlement will: tips.

Under the agreement, Uber will make it clear to riders that tips are not included in Uber’s fares. As such, drivers will be permitted to solicit tips from passengers.

“Uber has become an important part of many drivers’ lives, whether they drive all week or for a couple of hours to help pay the bills,” Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber said in a blog post. “Uber is a new way of working: it’s about people having the freedom to start and stop work when they want, at the push of a button. As we’ve grown we’ve gotten a lot right—but certainly not everything.”

By settling the cases, Uber appears to be trying to put the matter behind it, however, that may not be the case. Earlier this year, a similar settlement reached by Lyft was rejected by a judge.

[via The Los Angeles Times]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Judge: Ashley Madison Customers Cant Be Anonymous If They Want To Sue Cheating Site

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It’s understandable why someone who uses a website to cheat on their significant would want anonymity — mostly, they don’t want to get caught. But the former Ashley Madison customers seeking to sue over the massive data hack last year that exposed personal information for 30 million users or so will have to attach their names to the lawsuit, a federal judge ruled recently.

There are currently 42 plaintiffs seeking to represent a class of users of Ashley Madison, an online dating service that helps people cheat. Those plaintiffs want to sue Avid Life Media, the parent company of Ashley Madison, as John Does, “to reduce the risk of potentially catastrophic personal and professional consequences that could befall them and their families,” according to court papers (h/t New York Times).

They claim that Avid didn’t safeguard their personal and financial information, and peddled a “full delete removal” service for $19 a pop that didn’t actually purge user account information from its database. The plaintiffs are also accusing the company of populating the site with accounts from fake female users to lure customers.

Judge John A. Ross of the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri said in his ruling [PDF] that plaintiffs in cases that involve accusations of rape, child sexual abuse, and other sensitive matters have been allowed to be anonymous. But in other court cases, the mere embarrassment wasn’t enough to outweigh the presumption of openness and public scrutiny in judicial proceedings.

“At the same time, there is a compelling public interest in open court proceedings, particularly in the context of a class-action suit, where a plaintiff seeks to represent a class of consumers who have a personal stake in the case and a heightened interest in knowing who purports to represent their interests in the litigation,” he wrote.

The sexual preferences and habits of the plaintiffs “do not constitute information of the utmost intimacy” that would require withholding their names, the judge wrote.

It’s not like no one has seen their names anyway, the judge added, what with that whole “massive data leak all over the internet” thing.

“Moreover, the personal and financial information plaintiffs seek to protect has already been released on the Internet and made available to the public,” Judge Ross wrote in a ruling dated April 6 that was first reported by Ars Technica earlier this week.

Those who still want to go forward class representatives, who have a fiduciary obligation to represent the entire class of plaintiffs and who “generally receive an incentive award as compensation for work done on behalf of the class,” will have to disclose their identities, the judge wrote.

If they don’t want that role, they could dismiss their complaints and then proceed as class members — if and when a class is certified. Class members won’t have to be identified by name.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds

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Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Sears Holdings Will Close Additional 68 Kmart Stores 10 Sears Stores

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In their recent rounds of store closings, Sears Holdings tried something new: they announced them to the stores’ local news outlets, but didn’t release a nationwide list of stores slated to close. We started compiling our own list based on local news stories and reader tips at the beginning of this year. Late Thursday, Sears Holdings announced an additional 78 store closings, and saved us some work by putting out a national list. Scheduled to close in this round are 65 Kmarts, 3 Super K stores, and ten Sears stores.

Most of the stores listed will begin liquidation soon; Sears stores will start on April 29, and Kmart stores on May 12. A few, which we’ve noted, won’t close until September; those stores may begin their liquidation sales earlier.

Closing stores is a necessary thing when they’re underperforming, but Sears Chairman Eddie Lampert continues to cite the retail company’s planned “transformation” into a company with fewer retail stores across the country, brisk online sales, and a profit that comes from something other than selling its stores to an affiliated real estate investment trust.

“We’re focusing on our best members, our best categories and our best stores as we work to accelerate our transformation,” Lampert said in a statement along with the store closings press release. Closing their worst stores is a good start, as is renting out space that remaining stores don’t need, but Sears and Kmart to struggle with the idea of selling merchandise that customers are interested in, and being helpful when those customers show up in the store. We really are cheering for them to succeed, but are not hopeful.

State	Town	Store Type	Closing
AL	Birmingham	Kmart	Late July
AL	Decatur	Kmart	Late July
AL	Homewood	Kmart	Late July
AL	Mobile	Kmart	Late July
AL	Oxford	Sears	Late July
AR	Little Rock	Sears	Late July
AZ	Nogales	Kmart	Late July
CA	Dinuba	Kmart	Late July
CA	Lodi	Kmart	Late July
CA	Tulare	Kmart	Late July
CA	Wasco	Kmart	Late July
CT	Putnam	Kmart	Late July
FL	Jacksonville	Kmart	Late July
FL	Jacksonville	Sears	Late July
FL	Neptune Beach	Kmart	Late July
FL	Perry	Kmart	Late July
IL	Chicago (South Pulaski)	Kmart	Late July
IL	Danville	Kmart	Late July
IL	Galesburg	Kmart	Late July
IL	Lansing	Kmart	Late July
IL	Pekin	Kmart	Late July
IL	Rock Island	Kmart	Late July
IN	Bloomington	Kmart	Late July
IN	New Albany	Kmart	Late July
KS	Hutchinson	Kmart	Late July
KY	Elizabethtown	Kmart	Late July
KY	Louisville (Poplar Level Road)	Kmart	Late July
KY	Louisville (Taylorsville Road)	Kmart	Late July
KY	Maysville	Kmart	Late July
KY	Paintsville	Kmart	Late July
LA	Houma	Sears	Late July
LA	Pineville	Kmart	Late July
MA	Tewksbury	Kmart	Late July
MI	Houghton Lake	Kmart	Late July
MI	Midland	Sears	Late July
MI	Taylor	Super K	Mid-September
MO	Bridgeton	Kmart	Late July
MO	Springfield	Kmart	Late July
MS	Corinth	Kmart	Late July
MT	Billings	Kmart	Late July
NC	Brevard	Kmart	Late July
NC	Gastonia	Kmart	Late July
NC	Lumberton	Kmart	Late July
NC	Pineville	Kmart	Late July
NC	Rocky Mount	Kmart	Late July
NE	Hastings	Kmart	Late July
NY	Irondequoit	Sears	Late July
NY	Plattsburgh	Sears	Late July
NY	Poughkeepsie	Kmart	Late July
NY	Rochester	Kmart	Late July
OH	Ashtabula	Super K	Late July
OH	Eaton	Kmart	Late July
OH	Fremont	Kmart	Late July
OH	Lima	Kmart	Late July
OH	Lorain	Super K	Mid-September
OH	Marion	Sears	Late July
OH	Springboro	Kmart	Late July
PA	Beaver Falls	Kmart	Late July
PA	Butler	Sears	Late July
PA	New Castle	Sears	Late July
PA	Philadelphia (Frankford Ave)	Kmart	Late July
PA	Pittsburgh (McIntyre Square Dr)	Kmart	Late July
PA	Reading	Kmart	Late July
PA	Uniontown	Kmart	Late July
SC	Camden	Kmart	Late July
SD	Huron	Kmart	Late July
SD	Yankton	Kmart	Late July
TN	Athens	Kmart	Late July
TN	Maryville	Kmart	Late July
TN	Sweetwater	Kmart	Late July
TX	El Paso	Kmart	Late July
TX	Mission	Kmart	Late July
TX	Sweetwater	Kmart	Late July
UT	Draper	Kmart	Late July
UT	Price	Kmart	Late July
UT	West Jordan	Kmart	Late July
WI	Hartford	Kmart	Late July

 

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

General Mills Brands Tweet About Death Of Music Legend Prince Reconsider Delete

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When you’re running a corporate social media account, it’s very difficult to balance posts that will get people talking about your brand, and posts that will get people complaining about your brand. Brands found themselves with this dilemma when the unexpected news came that musician Prince died today. Should they acknowledge the news? Ignore it? Make themselves part of the conversation? Two brands that are part of Minneapolis-based General Mills posted tributes, then thought better of it and took them down.

Those brands were Cheerios and Hamburger Helper. We began seeing screen grabs of the Cheerios tweet soon after it was posted, but no trace of the post or apology on the official Cheerios account, so we contacted General Mills about the post.

They confirmed that it was genuine, and they took it down for the reason everyone assumes they did. “As a Minnesota brand, Cheerios wanted to acknowledge the loss of a musical legend in our hometown,” a General Mills representative wrote to Consumerist. “But we quickly decided that we didn’t want the tweet to be misinterpreted, and removed it out of respect for Prince and those mourning.”

Hamburger Helper similarly also posted a Prince-related tweet, and quickly deleted it.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Amazon Stays On Trend Closes Flash Sale Site Myhabit.com

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Flash sale fashion sites were a hot retail category during the recession, when high-end retailers had lots of inventory to get rid of. They proliferated, the bubble burst, with big players like Fab, Gilt, and Zulily all acquired by larger companies. Amazon started its own flash-sale site for fashion, MyHabit.com, in 2011 when the category was still growing, but announced that the site will close in May, just as Amazon is working to sell more of its own private-label and other brands’ clothing.

Amazon is the biggest online retailer, and fashion is now the biggest category in e-commerce by sales, so it’s easy to understand Amazon’s interest. At the same time, killing off MyHabit as the company makes more of a serious push to sell clothing makes sense. They can move fashion-savvy employees elsewhere in the growing Amazon Fashion business.

A company representative told WWD that the reason for the closing is to “simplify” the company’s fashion offerings.

“As we continue to increase our breadth of selection and improve the customer experience on Amazon.com,” the spokesperson wrote, “we have decided to simplify our offering and will be closing MyHabit at the end of May.”

Amazon Shuttering Myhabit.com [WWD]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

3 Reasons Comcasts Samsung App Is Not The Answer To Set-Top Box Reform

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Yesterday, only weeks after the FCC voted to draft rules that would require pay-TV companies to open up the set-top box market to competitors, Comcast announced a deal with Samsung that will allow owners of certain TVs to access their cable TV without the need to pay for a cable box every month. The industry and its supporters are heralding the news as a clear demonstration that the FCC should just shut up and stop all its regulating, but the reports of the set-top box’s death are greatly exaggerated.

This is not to say that the Comcast app is a bad thing or that it’s not a step in the right direction. In fact, we confirmed the positive aspects of the app with Comcast.

It could be used to replace set-top boxes. Unlike many current pay-TV apps, which generally require the subscriber to have at least one receiver in their home, Comcast claims the new app will only require the modem (which you probably also lease from Comcast; but one step at a time, right?).

Comcast also says the app will have cloud DVR capability, meaning you wouldn’t need a set-top box to record programming. We’ve heard some complaints from readers about the quality and reliability of Comcast’s cloud-based DVR, so that might be something to take into consideration. We also don’t know if there will be any monthly charge for DVR service using the app.

The bad news: Comcast will be charging for that cloud DVR service. We don’t know how much, but it’s not free.

Not surprisingly, the Comcast-connected Future of TV Coalition — a fake grassroots organization that continues to make patently false statements about the FCC plan — has put out an effusive statement effectively claiming the Comcast app as the Holy Grail of pay-TV.

“If the FCC’s set-top box proceeding is truly just about freeing consumers from monthly box fees, today’s announcement underscores how absurd the arguments for government intervention are,” reads a statement from the Coalition. “Apps, not federal box mandates, are the fastest and most effective way to expand consumers’ options for video devices.”

First off, the FCC rules are not “federal box mandates.” Instead, they would require that pay-TV companies make their content available for distribution through boxes and apps that compete with the boxes and apps that have almost solely been accessible through the cable providers.

Second, the Coalition statement conveniently glosses over the timing of this news and its relation to the FCC actions. Comcast has been in busy for more than four decades, but the company just happens to release the news about this app shortly before the open comment deadline on the FCC’s set-top box rulemaking process.

It’s amazing how industry tends to do pro-consumer things whenever regulators step up with the threat of new rules — and just as amazing how they tend to claim that they were planning this all along.

Regardless of whether this announcement is a well-timed effort to derail the FCC’s rules or just a happy coincidence, the fact remains that there are several reasons that a single app is not sufficient to discount the entire idea of set-top box reform.

1. Access Is Still Limited

Comcast may have partnered with a popular TV maker in Samsung, but the app will not be retroactively available on all existing Samsung Smart TVs, only on those made this year. So in order to avoid paying upwards of $10 per month for a set-top box, you’ll have to pay hundreds — possibly thousands for a new Samsung. If you have multiple boxes in your house, it could be quite some time (or cost you quite a lot of money) to rid yourself of these monthly lease fees.

Roku also announced that the Comcast app will be coming to its devices later this year, but that appears to be an over-the-top streaming service, as opposed to the Samsung app which is an actual live cable TV feed and should not suffer from the stutters, lags, or other hiccups often associated with livestreaming video.

And as we noted above, if you want the DVR aspect of the Comcast app, you’ll have to pay something to Comcast each month, so it may replace your box, but it’s not letting you get rid of the cost.

2. Limited Portability

One of the ideas behind offering competing set-top box devices and apps is that consumers would someday be able to take that device or app from one pay-TV provider to another. If you drop Comcast and switch to DirecTV or FiOS, you wouldn’t need to be able to buy a new box or switch to yet another app. The same would be true if you moved out of Comcast territory and into an area with a different provider.

In the Samsung case, only Comcast customers benefit, and only if they remain Comcast customers in the Comcast footprint. Switch providers and you’ll need a box to go with that fancy new TV; ditto if you relocate to Cablevision country.

3. An App From Comcast Is Not Competition

Competition is a good thing, often resulting in innovative and affordable products. In most of the country, Comcast only faces competition in the pay-TV market from the satellite providers, Dish and DirecTV. But each of these providers have their own proprietary set-top boxes that only work on their feeds. And they all charge a lot of money for these boxes, as we’ve shown in our recent detailed looks at various companies’ monthly bills.

The Comcast and DirecTV bills we looked at each charged $10 for a single DVR, with additional fees for multiple boxes and whole-home DVR service. The Dish bill we’re currently breaking down (and will post in the coming week) charges $12/month for a single DVR.

When Sens. Blumenthal and Markey tried to get the pay-TV companies to provide detailed information about their set-top box revenue, no cable company offered up anything close to a complete picture, leading the senators to do their best guesswork. They came up with a figure of $20 billion a year in fees spent by consumers.

For an opinion piece in The Hill, economist George Ford used generously conservative numbers — he appears to have used pricing solely for non-DVR receivers and doesn’t include estimates for things like whole-home DVR service or cloud DVR — in an apparent attempt to politicize the issue.

Even Ford’s industry-friendly math comes out to a total of more than $13 billion — $145/year per cable subscriber that goes into the hands of pay-TV companies. Yes, that’s less than the rough $20 billion figure from Blumenthal and Markey (and the actual figure is likely somewhere in the middle), but it’s no “get out of regulation free” card for the pay-TV industry.

Some cable providers have long contended that set-top boxes are not a profit center for the industry. A recent, non-partisan, analysis of box fees calculated that they result in around $1.2 billion a year in free cash flow for Comcast, which is not really a figure to brush off. The analysis also contends that these fees are “just video revenue in disguise,” meaning they are a way for cable companies to pad bills without raising the advertised price of their services. Sadly, that report also concludes that cable operators will just make for any lost box revenue by raising rates.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

In 6 Cities Amazon Same-Day Delivery Available In More White ZIP Codes Than Black Ones

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Effective same-day delivery is kind of the holy grail of online retail right now: being able to get your hands on that thing you need right now when you need it is the one advantage brick-and-mortar stores still have, and it’s the one Amazon in particular wants to chip away at. The list of cities where Amazon promises Prime subscribers access to same-day delivery keeps getting longer, but there’s a snag: not all addresses within a city are considered equal, and the pattern to the areas without access looks distressingly familiar.

It makes sense that not every single ZIP code out there can be equally reached by same-day delivery services. Some cities are large and sprawling and complicated, sure, and even in the more compact ones there might be some roads that are just tricky to take a truck down. Warehouses might be juuuuuuust out of range for the far-flung corners of a metropolis. Exceptions will always happen.

But reporters at Bloomberg went looking at those exceptions, and what they found in many of the nation’s biggest cities isn’t just haphazard: it’s a pattern with a clear and troubling correlation to hand.

For example, those exceptions makes a lot less sense when the no-go zone is one tiny little island in the middle of a geographically compact city — as in the Roxbury area of Boston, perhaps Bloomberg’s most immediately egregious example:

Likewise, the map of our nation’s capital — designed from the start as only ten miles on a side, and since 1846 even smaller — has a rather… abrupt demarcation in it:

And what do Roxbury and Southeast DC have in common? They’re the areas of their home cities with the highest concentration of black residents.

What has happened in both of those cities, Bloomberg found — as well as in Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, and New York — is that those little “pockets” (or glaring lines) where same-day delivery is unavailable correlate very neatly to the pockets (or glaring lines) of the neighborhoods’ racial make-up, as reported on the census.

Amazon’s certainly not doing it on purpose; no one is sitting around their office in Seattle, twirling a handlebar mustache while brandishing a cigar and exclaiming, “I know: Racism!”

Instead, it’s a problem we’ve seen before: when an algorithm or a computer or a human wielding those tools uses proxy data, like ZIP code and income correlations, what it often ends up with is a big fat pile of unintentional, but still present, racial bias.

Amazon tells Bloomberg that its plan in each city it goes to is to “start out small,” where there’s already a high concentration of Prime members, and then “end up getting big” as they expand the program, which makes a perfect amount of sense from Amazon’s point of view. But there are a lot of cities — including these six — where “highest number of existing subscribers” is probably going to correlate to “wealthiest areas,” which also tends to correlate to “whitest areas.”

In other words: customers who, behind a screen, are all anonymous and who live mere yards from each other are still treated differently under the data.

A Washington, D.C. area Prime customer who lives in one of the neighborhoods without same-day delivery tells Bloomberg, “I still get two-day shipping, but none of the superfast, convenient delivery services come here. If you bring that service to the city, you should offer it to the whole city.”

There’s a lot of segregation in most American cities still; neighborhoods, and therefore the ZIP codes that define them in databases, don’t necessarily see a lot of black and white families living side by side. That allows for high concentrations of pretty much any data point in one kind of ZIP code or another, and if you don’t have eyes inside the company — any company — specifically looking for it, it’s a pattern you may not see until it’s already done.

Or, as the D.C. customer put it to Bloomberg: “They [Amazon] are offering different services to other people who don’t look like you but live in the same city,” and so long as the effect continues to exist, the cause doesn’t really matter.

Amazon Doesn’t Consider the Race of Its Customers. Should It? [Bloomberg]

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

Victorias Secret Set To Ditch Swimwear After This Year

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Earlier this month, L Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret, announced it would restructure certain aspects of the retailer’s business, but failed to provide specifics on the changes. But a filing from the company’s bank sheds a little light on just what could be cut from the company. First up: swimwear. 

A note from Citigroup suggests that Victoria’s Secret will stop selling swimwear after this year, instead focusing its attention on its activewear line, BuzzFeed News reports.

Citigroup’s note, dated April 8, reported that L Brand’s “will be eliminating swim from stores and online” after the category “had trended down over the last several years and management believes store space will be better used for VS Sport.”

Two people familiar with the situation tell BuzzFeed that the company would be “exiting out of all current inventory by the end of this year.”

A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on the matter, except to say that more details about the retailer’s changes would be addressed on an upcoming earnings call.

Earlier this month, L Brands announced it would streamline operations and focus more on its core merchandise offerings: lingerie, the PINK brand, and Victoria’s Secret Beauty.

The company said that the restructuring would also include changes in how it connects with customers “through more focus on loyalty programs and brand-building engagement rather than traditional catalogues and offers.”

Victoria’s Secret Is Getting Out Of The Swimsuit Business [BuzzFeed News]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

California Regulators Might Stop Lyft And Uber Driver Car-Rental Programs

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Drivers for ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft need relatively new cars, so a program where drivers lease new General Motors vehicles for $99 per week seemed like a good match. It’s being tested in Chicago now, and the companies plan to expand the program. They won’t be expanding it to California, though: regulators there will vote today on a proposal that specifically bans such programs in the state.

Competitor Uber also has a car rental program for aspiring drivers who either don’t have a car or who don’t have a new enough car to be allowed to drive for the service. Their version puts drivers in new vehicles from Enterprise Rent-A-Car and costs $210 per week.

The proposed rules for drivers would require the minimum length of a car rental to be four months for ride-hailing drivers, ruling out the week-by-week programs. The goal is to ensure that drivers are using their own cars, and not using the rental service to get around existing commercial vehicle laws.

The ride-hailing services, of course, don’t want the state to regulate their rental programs out of existence and raise the barrier of entry for new drivers.

“The proposed rules will hurt casual drivers who want to earn extra income but can’t afford to own a car,” a spokesperson for Lyft told Bloomberg Technology in an e-mail.

Other proposed regulations affecting ride-hailing apps would place restrictions on services intended to transport unaccompanied minors, require drivers to put logos on the front and back windows of their vehicles, and regulate how passengers who split a ride using built-in carpooling services would split the fare.

California Vote Could Put an End to Lyft-GM Car Leasing Program Before It Starts [Bloomberg Technology]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Report: Teen Retailer Aeropostale Prepping Bankruptcy Filing

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The past few years haven’t exactly treated teen retailers well: DEB, Wet Seal, and dELiA*s (although it came back as an online-only store) are just a few of the brands that have filed for bankruptcy. Another once-popular teen-focused retailer is joining that list as Aeropostale is said to be prepping its own bankruptcy filing. 

After years of losses, the teen-clothing retailer — which operates 800 stores nationally — is supposedly looking to reorganize under Chapter 11, Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reports.

The retailer, which is still looking for ways to avoid a filing, is working on a loan to finance its operations during the looming bankruptcy process.

News of a pending bankruptcy filing comes just a week after the retailer said it would delay filing its annual report while it evaluated strategic alternatives, Bloomberg reports.

Aeropostale Said to Prepare Bankruptcy Filing as Soon as This Month [Bloomberg]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Appeals Court: Snowboarders Dont Have A Constitutional Right To Ski Slopes

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While it might be not-cool for a private ski resort to bar snowboarders from the ski slopes, does that change when the resort on government land? Would telling snowboarders to go elsewhere be a violation of their Constitutional rights? No — at least according to a federal appeals court.

Back in 2014, we told you about a lawsuit filed by a group of snowboarders against the United States Forest Service, which controls most of the land on which Utah’s Alta Ski Area is located. The snowboarders alleged that Alta’s ban on snowboarding violated their rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, both of which say that no one shall be deprived of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

Much of the Alta Ski Area — one of only three resorts in the U.S. to ban snowboarders — is located on federal land, and the U.S. Forest Service must periodically re-approve the resort’s management plan. That plan includes the ski area reserving the right to exclude any activities it deems a risk to other skiers, might mess with its snow, or is otherwise inconsistent with its business model.

The snowboarding plaintiffs contend that, by signing off on Alta’s ban, the Forest Service is depriving them of their constitutionally protected rights, and that the ski area’s only basis for barring boarders is an irrational dislike of the sport.

In 2014, the District Court dismissed the snowboarders’ lawsuit, saying that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate a “state action.” While the government does approve the management plan and receives some money from Alta, the Forest Service’s connection to the snowboarding ban is not sufficient to make the case that the U.S. government was banning the practice.

The snowboarders appealed, arguing that the District Court failed to accept the facts presented as true, and to grant all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiffs.

However, in a ruling [PDF] released earlier this week, a Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals panel notes that while a court might accept facts as true, there is no obligation to accept that the plaintiffs’ “legal conclusions as true.”

“Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice,” writes the appeals court, quoting from a 2012 Tenth Circuit decision.

Regardless, the appeals panel says it reviewed the facts presented by plaintiffs and asked whether they do indeed back up a claim that the snowboard ban violates the Fourteenth Amendment.

There are a number of ways for a court to consider whether the government’s connection to a private action crosses the line — has the government involved itself so much in the affairs of a private party that a “symbiotic relationship” has developed? Is the connection between the government and the private party so close that the action of the private party “may be fairly treated as that of the State itself”? Is the private party a “willful participant in joint activity” with the state? And has the private party been given authority that is “traditionally exclusively reserved to the state”?

Even if the answer to any of these is “yes,” the court must still determine whether the disputed action is actually attributable to the state.

The plaintiffs had argued that statements from Alta management — like the general manager, who allegedly said the snowboard ban is legitimate because “the Forest Service says it’s OK” — indicated that the Service had explicitly given its approval of the ban.

The snowboarders had also claimed that the fees paid by Alta to the Forest Service shows that the government “depends on Alta to operate the resort on National Forest land for the public,” and that without those fees, “the Government would be forced to either assume or abandon the operations or enter into an identical arrangement for another entity like Alta to assume operations.”

However, the appeals court counters that the $400,000/year paid by Alta to the USFS is only .1% of the Service’s annual budget, and represents just one of more than 120 ski resorts in the country with a similar arrangement. So, in the court’s view, if Alta Ski Area were to vanish, it would not have any significant impact on the operations of the USFS.

Also, because the government did nothing to contribute to the development of Alta other than to lease the land for the resort, the appeals panel concluded that the snowboarders’ argument was stretched too far.

“[T]he complaint at best establishes that the Forest Service knows about the snowboard ban,” explains the court, “and continues to approve its permit each year notwithstanding the ban.”

As for the Service’s annual re-approval of the Alta management plan, the court notes that the USFS “doesn’t make Alta’s permit contingent upon a snowboard ban or otherwise encourage a snowboard ban.”

[via Courthouse News]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Tesla Reportedly Working On Secret Self-Driving Bus-Type Vehicle

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Over the past year, Tesla has tweaked its self-driving vehicle software — Autopilot. Now, it appears the company is preparing to use the autonomous feature to reduce traffic in large cities by offering it on a bus — or something similar to one. 

Bloomberg reports that the secret development is Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s attempt to address traffic congestion in high-density urban areas.

“We have an idea for something which is not exactly a bus but would solve the density problem for inner city situations,” Musk said at a transport conference in Norway.

The key to solving that issue, Musk says, is autonomous vehicles, and not just those for individual use.

“I don’t want to talk too much about it. I have to be careful what I say,” he later said. “There’s a new type of car or vehicle that would be great for that and that’ll actually take people to their final destination and not just the bus stop.”

Musk’s Secret Plan to Curb City Traffic With Self-Driving ‘Bus’ [Bloomberg]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Google Adding Live TV Listings To Search Results

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Although your binge-watching brain might not remember a time when television shows and movies were anything but on-demand, live TV is still around. Soon, if you want to find out what’s on and when, Google search results will include listings for live TV.

Google’s president of global partnerships, Daniel Alegre, announced the feature during the closing General Session of the National Association of Broadcasters Show, as well as posting the news online.

Alegre says more and more viewers are turning to their phones to find out what to watch and where to watch it, noting that searches for TV shows and films on mobile have grown more than 55% in the past year.

You’ll be able to click an “Edit provider” link so Google knows how you consume TV, whether it’s cable or over-the-air TV, for better results.

It’s unclear when this feature will be rolling out, although Google says it will be “soon.”

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

You Can Get A Free Ice Cream Cone Today At Carvel

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If you’re looking for a treat this afternoon, you can get a free junior soft-serve cone if there’s a Carvel store near you from 3 PM to 8 PM. The cones are free, and vanilla, chocolate, and Oreo flavors are available. Customers who stop by can get a special coupon book if they make a $1 donation to the American Red Cross. [Carvel]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Uber Fined $11.4 Million For Operating Without Proper Authority

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When Uber launched its Pennsylvania operations in 2014, it did so without approval of the state regulatory agency that oversees most taxi services. Two years later, the ridesharing service is being hit with a $11.365 million civil penalty by the state.

This morning, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) — which regulates taxi services everywhere in the state except for Philadelphia — announced its final penalty against Uber for failing to obtain proper authority to operate a transportation service in the state, for ignoring cease-and-desist orders, and for then failing to respond to subsequent document requests from the PUC.

The penalty counts each Uber ride during this time period an individual violation. And while the $11.365 million penalty is the largest ever issued by the PUC, it’s significantly smaller than the $50 million amount recommended in Nov. 2015 by an administrative law judge.

The PUC explains the reduced amount by noting that Uber has modified its internal practices to come into compliance with conditions imposed by the Commission, and the company has “not demonstrated any significant compliance problems” since obtaining proper authority to operate in Pennsylvania.

“We find that a civil penalty of this size is necessary to deter Uber and other members of this industry from future violations of the Public Utility Code and the laws of this Commonwealth,” explains Commissioner John Coleman.

Two PUC commissioners dissented, saying the penalty goes too far in punishing Uber, especially when compared to previous fines levied by the commission.

Commissioner Pamela Witwer — one the two dissenters — contends that the PUC has come down with less severe penalties in cases involving “incidents of serious bodily injury, fatalities, significant property damage” and risks to public safety.

The Uber penalty is also many times larger than the $250,000 settlement the PUC previously negotiated with Lyft over similar violations.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Volkswagen Offers To Buy Back Emissions-Cheating Clean Diesel Cars

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Owners of one of Volkswagen’s 500,000 diesel vehicles equipped with “defeat devices” designed to cheat emission standards will have two options when it comes to fixing their vehicles: allow the carmaker to buy it back or have it modified to meet emissions standards. 

Those options were revealed Thursday as Volkswagen and regulators from the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board presented an “agreement in principle” to U.S. Federal Judge Charles Breyer that aims to address the emission-cheating vehicles, USA Today reports.

Breyer had given VW until today to provide him with a detailed plan to bring the affected vehicles into compliance with clean air laws and compensate owners, or risk going to trial.

While the agreement does not actually address just how VW plans to bring vehicles into compliance with federal emission standards, Breyer said the agreement showed “definite momentum to resolving these issues.”

The deal, which is still flexible, also includes a payment of “substantial compensation” that will see VW spending at least $1 billion to compensate owners of vehicles, Road and Track reports.

Exact compensation, which is still being negotiated and was not disclosed, will vary depending on the make and model of a vehicle.

However, the Associated Press suggests that owners of newer models that can be fixed through a software upgrade will receive little from the company, while the 325,000 or so owners of older cars will likely get more because the repairs could affect mileage and performance.

Road and Track reports that VW will also establish a fund for “appropriate remediation efforts” to address the excess nitrogen oxide emissions created by the vehicles.

Additionally, the company agreed to commit funding to promote “green automotive technology.”

Breyer set June 21 as a deadline for the parties to file preliminary proposals on the settlement. The court will hold a preliminary hearing on July 26. The public will then have a chance to share their thoughts on the deal before it is finalized.

“It is the court’s expectation that the parties, in addition to finalizing the agreements that I just discussed, will work expeditiously on resolving these outstanding issues,” Breyer said.

VW Agrees to Buy Back U.S. Diesel Vehicles Affected by TDI Emissions Cheat [Road and Truck]
Volkswagen reaches ‘substantial’ settlement to buy back, repair cars [USA Today]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Foodservice Employees: Have You Ever Gone To Work Sick? Tell Us About It

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Every day, countless American workers go to their jobs knowing they have a cold, flu, or some other communicable illness, but not all of these people have work that puts them in contact with other folks’ food. If you’ve worked in foodservice and gone to a job while still ill, we want to hear your story. Were you concerned about losing your job if you didn’t show up? Does your employer not offer sick leave? Could you not afford to lose those few hours? Whatever your reason, we’d like to hear your story. Email us at tips@consumerist.com with “SICK AT WORK” in the subject line. All details would remain anonymous, and no names or other identifying information would be published.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Comedy Central MTV Nick Jr. Coming To Sling TV Streaming Service

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This morning, Dish Network and Viacom announced a contract multi-year renewal that keeps Viacom channels like Comedy Central, MTV, BET, and Nickelodeon on the satellite service, and will also add a number of Viacom-owned channels to Dish’s Sling TV streaming service.

While Sling has offered pay-TV mainstays like CNN, ESPN, and TBS since its launch in 2014 — and recently added a plan that adds several FOX-owned channels — it has thus far lacked access to Viacom’s most popular cable offerings.

Details are slim, but Dish said today that at least Comedy Central, BET, Spike, MTV, and Nick Jr. (note the apparent omission of Nickelodeon) will be included. The company mentions the vague “others” to come, but doesn’t say whether the Viacom channels will be part of the base Sling lineup or if they’ll be put into add-on packages for purchase above the base price.

While Sling’s slender channel lineup has allowed Dish to sell the service for as little as $20/month, the lack of certain networks has kept the service from offering a full cable replacement. The PlayStation Vue service from Sony already includes these Viacom channels, along with offerings from NBC Universal, FOX, Turner, and others. However, Vue’s lowest monthly rate is double that of Sling’s base subscription rate.

Sling also recently bolstered its offering by including live access to local FOX stations and regional FOX Sports channels in several markets. The company is currently running a beta test on a service that allows a single account to have multiple users accessing up to three streams simultaneously.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

McDonalds: All-You-Can-Eat Fries Is Limited To One Location Not A Company Test

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As you may have heard earlier this week, one McDonald’s location in Missouri will be offering all-you-can-eat fries when it opens in July. That news got twisted in some media reports that gushed about the fries being a company test, leading to confusion among customers. That misconception has prompted the powers that be at McDonald’s corporate to clear things up: there’s no test, so don’t get your hopes up.

We know, it must have been exciting to envision a tray overflowing with French fries — nay, a swimming pool of French fries! that a customer could swim around in and gobble at their leisure. Sorry, guys.

“To celebrate its grand opening, the restaurant is offering all-you-can-eat fries for a limited promotion as a great shareable menu item for our customers,” a McDonald’s spokeswoman told the Chicago Tribune by email. She said there had been some “confusion” going on over the news, which has been spreading all over social media.

Again, even the offer at the yet-to-be-built Missouri McDonald’s has an end point, if you were planning a pilgrimage at some point in the future. Customers will eventually have to pay for all the fries they eat, just like the rest of us.

All-you-can-eat fries at McDonald’s or anywhere else? Not on your life! [Chicago Tribune]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Carnival Might Delay First Trips To Cuba

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Less than a month after Carnival Cruise Line received the official go-ahead for crises from the United States to Cuba, the company’s May start date could be delayed. 

Carnival says it could push back scheduled trips from Miami to Cuba unless the destination country doesn’t change a policy that prohibits nationals from returning to the island by sea, the Associated Press reports.

The cruise line’s announcement that it might delay its maiden voyage to Cuba was made during a status hearing for a lawsuit filed against the company by two Cuban-Americans. A Miami judge on Thursday said he would consider the lawsuit.

The lawsuit challenged Carnival’s refusal to allow Cuban-born consumers to book trips on the upcoming voyages, calling the policy discriminatory. The company had said at the time that it had to adhere to Cuban law.

Carnival reversed that stance earlier this week, announcing it would begin accepting reservations from people born in Cuba in hopes that the Cuban government would overturn the prohibition on travel by ship before May 1.

If that doesn’t happen, the company says it is prepared to delay its trips.

“We remain confident that we will reach a positive outcome and we continue to work full speed ahead in preparing for our every-other-week sailings from Port Miami to Cuba,” Carnival CEO Arnold Donald said in an email to employees, the New York Times reports.

Last month, Cuban authorities said they’d granted permission to Carnival for the 740-passenger Adonia’s inaugural voyage from Miami to Havana departing May 1.

The trips will be the first time in more than 50 years that a cruise ship has traveled from the U.S. to the island nation.

Travelers will set sail on seven-day cruises with Carnival’s Fathom brand, which offers cultural exchange programs. That’s one of the approved categories of travel to the island nation under new rules which allow for “people-to-people educational travel.”

Judge to consider Cuban exile lawsuit against Carnival [The Associated Press]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist