uRegulators Find More “Defeat Devices” In 10,000 VW, Porsche And Audi Vehiclesr

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• A month and a half after the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board found “defeat devices” designed to cheat emission tests in nearly 500,000 Volkswagen and Audi vehicles, the agencies’ ongoing investigation found additional Clean Air Act violations in the carmaker’s newer model Porsche, Audi and VW cars. 

  The EPA announced Monday that it had detected defeat devices in approximately 10,000 model year 2014 to 2016 VW vehicles equipped with 3.0 liter engines.

  Affected vehicles include the 2014 VW Touareg, the 2015 Porsche Cayenne, and the 2016 Audi A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A8L, and Q5.

  “VW has once again failed its obligation to comply with the law that protects clean air for all Americans,” Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for the Office for EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, said during a press call on Monday. “All companies should be playing by the same rules. EPA, with our state, and federal partners, will continue to investigate these serious matters, to secure the benefits of the Clean Air Act, ensure a level playing field for responsible businesses, and to ensure consumers get the environmental performance they expect.”

  Regulators previously accused VW of installing the so-called defeat devices on about 482,000 diesel vehicles since 2008.

  According to the EPA notice of violation [PDF], the vehicles contain two modes of operation – temperature conditioning and normal mode.

  The “sophisticated software algorithm” in the vehicles is programmed to detect when the car is undergoing official emissions testing, and to only turn on full emissions control systems – the temperature conditioning mode – during that testing.

  According to the notice:

  “At exactly one second after the completion of the initial phases of the standard test procedure, the vehicle immediately changes a number of operating parameters that increase NOx emissions and indicates in the software that it is transitioning to ‘normal mode,’ where emissions of NOx increase up to nine times the EPA standard, depending on the vehicle and type of driving conditions. In other tests where the vehicle does not experience driving conditions similar to the start of the federal test procedure, the emissions are higher from the start, consistent with ‘normal mode.'”

  The effectiveness of these vehicles’ pollution emissions control devices is greatly reduced during all normal driving situations, emitting nearly 40 times the allowable standard of nitrogen oxide.

  Under the Clean Air Act, vehicle manufacturers are required to certify to the EPA that their products will meet applicable federal emission standards to control air pollution, and every vehicle sold in the U.S. must be covered by an EPA-issued certificate of conformity.

  Motor vehicles – such as the Volkswagen models in question – equipped with defeat devices, which reduce the effectiveness of the emission control system during normal driving conditions, cannot be certified.

  As with the Sept. 18 notice of violation from the EPA, the agencies say the vehicles are safe to drive.

  “Today we are requiring VW Group to address these issues,” Richard Corey, Executive Officer of CARB, said on a press call Monday. “This is a very serious public health matter. CARB and EPA will continue to conduct a rigorous investigation that includes testing more vehicles until all of the facts are out in the open.”

  For more information on the continuing VW emissions debacle, check coverage from our colleagues at Consumer Reports.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uFormer Ashley Madison Customer Sues Site Over “Army Of Fembots” With Fake Profilesr

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• After hackers dumped a plethora of personal information about Ashley Madison’s 37 million subscribers online in August, the public has learned a lot about the dating site aimed at cheaters. Among the reported revelations: only about 15% of its users are women, contrary to the site’s marketing claims, a new lawsuit says. Adding insult to injury? The army of fembots scattered through the sites with fake profiles written by employees.

  Not only were subscribers embarrassed by the data leak, but Ashley Madison’s parent company Avid Life Media concealed the fact that there were so few real women, one customer claims in a federal class action suit reported by Courthouse News.

  More than 70,000 so-called women on the site were actually “fembots,” the subscriber claims, imaginary women who were born from the imaginations of Ashley Madison employees. Their purpose? “To send male users millions of fake messages,” the complaint states.

  “Ashley Madison went to extreme measures to fraudulently lure in and profit from customers,” the lawsuit reads. “Defendants’ fraudulent and deceitful actions include, but are not limited to: marketing that the site had 5.5 million female profiles, when only a small percentage of the profiles belonged to actual women who used the site; hiring employees whose jobs were to create thousands of fake female profiles…”

  Users were charged in-site “credits” whenever they wanted to contact someone else, the plaintiff says, which means he and other users were paying to talk to robots more often than real women: he claims the “army of fembots” contacted male users more than 20 million times, raking in big money for Avid Life.

  If he’d known that most of the female profiles on the site were fake, the customer says, he wouldn’t have joined in the first place.

  “In short, defendants did not only mislead in marketing and promoting the website, they purposefully induced members — like plaintiff and the class — to engage with the fake profiles by sending out the initial communication to members. This directly caused members to incur costs while believing it was an actual person communicating with them,” the complaint states.

  He’s seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, an injunction banning Avid Life from using “undisclosed fake profiles” on its website, restitution, and punitive damages for fraud, unfair competition, false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, and unjust enrichment.

  Fembots Populated Ashley Madison, Class Says [Courthouse News]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

u11 Things We Learned From The New York Times’ Investigative Report On Arbitrationr

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  Consumerist’s first post on the subject of arbitration, back in 2007, described a dispute that was ultimately resolved in the consumer’s favor. Since then, we’ve been against the practice, pointing out when popular companies change their terms of service to add arbitration clauses. It doesn’t matter, though, because arbitration can save companies so much money that they don’t especially care what we think. Sometimes.

  This weekend, the New York Times published a great two-part series based on analysis of real arbitration recods and interviews with plaintiffs, defendants, arbitrators, and attorneys.

  1. Arbitration decisions can’t be appealed. That can simplify things, but becomes a serious issue when a case doesn’t go your way.
  2. The rules of evidence that exist in a court setting don’t apply, and pesky things like rules against conflicts of interest also don’t exist in arbitration.
  3. The Times notes that judges sometimes call arbitration clauses “get out of jail free” cards, since they prevent consumers from fighting companies over relatively small slights that aren’t worth going to arbitration over individually.

     “Ominously, business has a good chance of opting out of the legal system altogether and misbehaving without reproach,” said one federal judge.

     Arbitration clauses in contracts in cases grew after two Supreme Court cases, in 2011 and 2013.

  4. It happens that one of the lawyers working for the cause of banning class actions was John G. Roberts, Jr., who is now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. At the time, he was a corporate lawyer working for Discover Bank.
  5. In theory, class action bans let consumers arbitrate their disputes without the lengthy class-action process that mostly benefits class-action attorneys. However, Times analysis of attempted class actions that stopped because of mandatory arbitration clauses show that most people drop their cases rather than go to arbitration.
  6. A wide variety of businesses now employ arbitration clauses, covering the whole lifespan, from obstetrician to funeral homes.
  7. Consumers suspected that banks were re-ordering debit card transations from the highest to the lowest amounts at the end of each day to rack up extra overdraft fees. Customers sued in class actions, and most of those banks now have arbitration clauses.
  8. Corporate lawyers and executives argue that arbitration and small claims court are both still open to consumers with small disputes, and we aren’t bothering to file complaints because we aren’t familiar with those venues or don’t know how.
  9. Oakland Raiders cheerleaders considered entering arbitration against the team. Then they learned that the abritrator in charge would be… the completely impartial commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell.
  10. A private justice system means that religion can also become part of the proceedings: some companies require their customers to go to prayer-filled Christian arbitration.
  11. Companies return to the same arbitrator over and over: how do you know that one won’t decide against you just to court future business?

  Arbitration Everywhere, Stacking the Deck of Justice

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uBest Buy Adds Same-Day Delivery Test In San Franciscor

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  Last-minute holiday shopping just got a bit easier for some Californians who simply forget to grab a gift for your electronics-loving family and friends: Best Buy is testing same-day delivery. 

  The electronics retailer announced this weekend that it added the quick delivery option for certain areas around San Francisco, Re/code reports.

  Under the test, Best Buy will use Deliv to provide the same-day delivery of purchases in San Francisco and towns and cities between there and San Jose.

  Fees for same-day delivery will be the same as the company’s express shipping option, which varies in price. Best Buy already offers customers the choice of in-store pickup.

  The retailer joins the throngs of other retailers dipping their toes in the world of same-day delivery, including Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Kohl’s and others.

  The Amazon Effect: Best Buy Adds Same-Day Delivery in San Francisco [RE/CODE]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uNearly 168,000 Pounds Of Ground Beef Recalled For E. Coli Contaminationr

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  Adding a few ingredients to ground beef can make for a delicious meal, but there’s nothing tasty about the addition of E. coli in your meat. For that reason, an Omaha company is recalling nearly 168,000 pounds of beef. 

  All American Meats Inc. recalled the 167,427 pounds of ground beef after some products tested positive for traces of E. coli, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

  So far, there are no reports of customers becoming ill from the products, which were produced on Oct. 16 and sold at retail stores nationwide.

  The products include the establishment number “EST. 20420” inside the USDA mark of inspection.

  The following ground beef products are covered by the recall:

  • 80-lb. (approximate weight) boxes of “Ground Beef 80% Lean 20% Fat (Fine Grind)” with Sell By Date 11-03-2015 and case code 62100.
  • 80-lb. (approximate weight) boxes of “Ground Beef 73% Lean 27% Fat (Fine Grind)” with Sell By Date 11-03-2015 and case code 60100.
  • 60-lb. (approximate weight) boxes of “Ground Beef Round 85% Lean 15% Fat (Fine Grind)” with Sell By Date 11-03-2015 and case code 68560.
  • 60-lb. (approximate weight) boxes of “Ground Beef Chuck 81% Lean 19% Fat (Fine Grind)” with Sell By Date 11-03-2015 and case code 68160.
  • 60-lb. (approximate weight) boxes of “Ground Beef Chuck 81% Lean 19% Fat (Fine Grind)” with Sell By Date 11-03-2015 and case code 63130.
  • 80-lb. (approximate weight) boxes of “Ground Beef Chuck 81% Lean 19% Fat (Fine Grind)” with Sell By Date 11-03-2015 and case code 63100.

  E. coli illness is miserable and inconvenient for most people, featuring abdominal cramps and watery diarrhea. However, people who are sick should be monitored for signs of dehydration, and young children and elderly people are susceptible to kidney failure.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uSupreme Court: Yes, You Need Permission To Sell T-Shirts Featuring Bob Marley’s Facer

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  When it comes to famous faces, not just anyone can cash in and use those well-known likenesses for their own financial gain. That’s why the highest court in the land has turned down an appeal from clothing companies that wanted to peddle T-shirts bearing the image of reggae legend Bob Marley.

  The Supremes let stand a lower court ruling that said merchandisers hadn’t gotten approval from Marley’s children to sell clothing at Walmart, Target and other stores, reports the Associated Press.

  The musician’s heirs control the rights to his image through a company called Fifty-Six Hope Road Music, and sued competitor A.V.E.L.A. and others in 2008, saying the companies had violated federal trademark law with the Marley products.

  A federal court ordered the defendants to pay more than $1 million in profits and damages, and a federal appeals court agreed. Shoppers would be confused about who endorsed the merchandise, the court found.

  And don’t even try to market a line of marijuana using Marley’s name — the family also has plans for branded weed… in states where it’s legal, of course.

  Supreme Court won’t hear appeal over use of Bob Marley’s image [Associated Press]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uSnapchat Clarifies Privacy Policy Change, Promises It Doesn’t Store Photos Or Messagesr

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• Once again a company has taken steps to clarify its privacy policy after recent changes caused confusion and worry for its customers. Over the weekend, Snapchat reassured users that their information and photos are private, and always will be. 

  In a blog post Sunday, the photo-sharing app attempted to put an end to users’ concerns that a newly updated privacy policy gave the company the ability to store and share users photos.

  “First off, we want to be crystal clear: The Snaps and Chats you send your friends remain as private today as they were before the update,” the company said.

  Snapchat says that nothing has changed regarding the privacy of users photos; they will continue to be “automatically deleted from our servers once we detect that they have been viewed or have expired.”

  “But the important point is that Snapchat is not—and never has been—stockpiling your private Snaps or Chats,” the blog post continued. “And because we continue to delete them from our servers as soon as they’re read, we could not—and do not—share them with advertisers or business partners.”

  The company does admit that the privacy policy gives it broad license to use the content users create in order to share snaps submitted to Live Stories. However, consumers can restrict their personal privacy settings within the app so not to share these snaps.

  To ensure personal communications continue to remain truly personal, users should: open the Snapchat app, click on the snap ghost, tap the settings wheel and review who can send them snaps and view their stories.

  [via CNET]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist