REMARKS
Council Member Julie Menin provides opening remarks for the hearing on consumer financial experiences in retail
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3 min
Council Member Julie Menin, chair of the Committee on Consumer and Worker protection, opens the hearing on consumer financial experiences in the retail industry.
She introduces three bills to be discussed and outlines the purpose of the hearing, which includes examining DCWP's enforcement of consumer protection laws and addressing consumer complaints in retail settings.
- Mentions three bills: Intro 374, Intro 1049, and Intro 1097, briefly explaining each
- Discusses DCWP's role in enforcing consumer protection laws and educating businesses and consumers
- Highlights a past investigation into grocery stores, including a settlement with Whole Foods
Julie Menin
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Good afternoon.
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I'm Julie Menon, chair of the committee on consumer and worker protection, and I wanna welcome everyone to today's hearing.
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First of all, I wanna acknowledge my colleagues who are present, council member Riley and council member Marte, and I'll acknowledge additional colleagues as they join us.
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So thank you again for joining today's hearing on consumer financial experiences in the retail industry as well as bill introductions three seven four, 10 40 nine, and ten ninety seven.
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Retail establishments in New York City are required to comply with a variety of local laws that seek to protect consumers from deceptive and unfair business practices.
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DCWP is responsible for, of course, enforcing those consumer protection laws and educating both consumers and businesses about their rights and obligations under them.
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The agency's work to inspect businesses can have real impacts on New Yorkers' pocketbooks.
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When I served as commissioner of DCWP, we implemented a major investigation into grocery stores after finding that some major players, including Whole Foods in particular, routinely overstated the weights of its prepackaged products such as meats, dairy, and baked goods, resulting in customers routinely being overcharged.
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Whole Foods ultimately agreed to pay $500,000 and agreed to adhere in our agreement with them to strict preventive and corrective standards to better protect consumers as part of a settlement agreement with DCWP.
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At today's hearing, I look forward to hearing how DCWP is approaching, enforcement of consumer protection laws in retail settings.
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We're we'll learn about their inspection strategy and how the agency educates businesses about their obligations and consumers about their rights.
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We will also examine how the agency is addressing consumer complaints regarding retail establishments.
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We are today hearing three pieces of legislation related to consumers' financial experiences in retail establishments.
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Intro three seventy four sponsored by council member Keith Powers would prohibit businesses from setting a minimum purchase requirement greater than $10 for credit card transactions.
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Intro ten forty nine sponsored by council member Brooks Powers would require sellers of petroleum products for use in motor vehicles or motor boats to disclose preauthorization holds prior to initiating a transaction that would require a preauthorization hold.
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And then finally, introduction ten ninety seven sponsored by council member Riley would require retail stores that primarily sell food for off-site consumption and retail stores that include a pharmacy to accept flexible benefit cards distributed by health insurance providers.
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The committee looks forward to hearing, testimony from DCWP and other stakeholders about the city's enforcement of consumer protection laws in retail settings.
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So first, I'm gonna pass it over to my colleague council member Riley, who's a sponsor of ten ninety seven.
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I know he worked very closely in conjunction with council member Marte, who'll also be making a statement on this bill.
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So council member Riley.