Mamdani’s consumer watchdog takes on ‘epidemic of corporate lawbreaking’

New York City’s new commissioner of consumer and worker protection is launching an “aggressive” campaign to fight junk fees and deceptive practices

People in the US: tell us about your difficult consumer experiences

N ew York mayor Zohran Mamdani ’s top consumer watchdog has one gripe about New Yorkers – he would like them to complain more. “We get about 30,000 complaints a year,” said Samuel AA Levine, New York City ’s new commissioner of consumer and worker protection. “I’d really like to get the number up.”

From downtown Manhattan, he has renewed a war on junk fees and deceptive subscriptions that he started in Washington DC as the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection director during the Biden presidency, banned hotels ’ hidden charges, and cracked down on delivery companies’ “design tricks ” that lower wages and predatory debt collection . Since January, his office has sued self-storage companies and won millions from Uber Eats and Amazon.

June could see a new “ click to cancel ” rule that would make New York the first municipality in the US with a law on subscriptions that are maddeningly difficult to get out of.

The United States has suffered a decades-long “epidemic of corporate lawbreaking with very few repercussions”, Levine told the Guardian in a recent interview from his office, decorated with a caustic New York Post editorial that features Levine and Mamdani eating Munchkins as they announce an $1.8m settlement with a Dunkin’ Donuts franchisee over worker violations.

Critics, and corporate law firms, are raising alarms about New York’s new “aggressive enforcement posture ”, warning that Levine is a local analogue to a state attorney general or the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

“Corporations that rip people off need to face consequences. I don’t think that’s radical. I think it’s common sense,” said Levine.