Consumer Assembly 2024
58th Annual Consumer Assembly
Wednesday, June 5 and Thursday, June 6, 2024
Capital Hilton Hotel
1001 16th St NW
Wednesday, June 5
8:40 am
Welcome & Keynote Introduction
Speaker
Susan Weinstock
CEO
Consumer Federation of America
8:45am
Keynote Address
Speaker
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto
United States Senate
9:05am
Protecting the Privacy of our Servicemembers
The military community is often a target for fraud and identity theft due to the fact that military families frequently relocate. These issues have a cascading effect, causing issues with credit reporting errors and jeopardizing the morale of our troops and their financial readiness. A recent study from Duke University also demonstrated the alarmingly lax treatment of servicemembers’ personal information by data brokers, which can be purchased for as little as $0.12 per record, creating issues of national security. Hear from panelists about the myriad of concerns presented by these problems and discuss policy recommendations.
Moderator
R.J. Cross
Consumer Privacy Program Director
U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)
Panelists
Bhavna Changrani
Attorney
Federal Trade Commission, Division of Privacy and Identity Protection
Kiren Gopal
Senior Counsel, Policy Planning & Strategy
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Justin Sherman
Adjunct Professor
Duke University, Sanford School of Public Policy
10:05am
Navigating Product Safety Online
Consumers expect to purchase safe products, but what are the safety and health implications as shoppers increasingly turn to online platforms? This panel will explore efforts to remove recalled or otherwise violative products sold on or through online marketplaces. It also will discuss the challenges with holding third-party sellers accountable and what can be done to empower consumers with safety information.
Moderator
Courtney Griffin
Director of Consumer Product Safety
Consumer Federation of America
Panelists
Martha Perez-Pedemonti
Civil Justice & Consumer Rights Counsel
Public Citizen
Oriene Shin
Policy Counsel, Product Safety
Consumer Reports
Michele Viterise
Senior Policy Counsel, Office of the Chair
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
11:05am
Networking Break
11:15am
Revising Antitrust to Rein In Big Tech Platforms: What Role Should Antitrust Play Regarding Big Tech?
A bad thing happened on the internet: it has become dominated by a handful of big tech platforms. They have bought up their rivals, worked to stifle competition, and formed oligopolies over large swaths of economic life. Large players use their size to offer free or low-cost services with the dual aims of starving smaller rivals and capturing market share, knowing they can recoup their losses once they have achieved dominance in their market segment. With so much market power, they capture and monetize our personal data on their terms and in ways that consumers feel powerless to prevent. Their size and power harm small businesses as well. Because many consumers rely on search engines and social media to find a service or a product, Big Tech companies have effectively become toll booths to commerce. Unfortunately, the antitrust framework has traditionally measured consumer welfare through pricing. This panel will discuss potential solutions to revise antitrust law to restore the balance of power between consumers and Big Tech.
Moderator
Sara Morrison
Correspondent
The Capitol Forum
Panelists
Nidhi Hegde
Managing Director
American Economic Liberties Project
Randy Stutz
President
American Antitrust Institute
Sandeep Vaheesan
Legal Director
Open Markets Institute
Bryn Williams
First Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Unit
Colorado Department of Law
12:15pm
Lunch
1:15pm
A Fireside Chat with Stephen Brobeck: Unraveling the Real Estate Broker Fee Debate
Amidst a historical housing crisis in the United States, many homebuyers struggle to afford a home. Excessive fees in closing costs, including real estate agent commissions, exacerbate this problem. In recent years, the outsized costs of broker fees and their lack of price variation have come under scrutiny. In Burnett et al. v. National Association of Realtors (NAR), the jury found the trade association liable for conspiring to artificially inflate commissions, ordering the defendants to pay $1.78 billion in damages to Missouri home sellers. This lawsuit and similar ones filed since are upending the ways real estate agents charge commissions. In this fireside chat, CFA’s Director of Housing Sharon Cornelissen interviews Stephen Brobeck to explore the evolving landscape of real estate agent broker fees and its consumer implications. We will delve into the national significance of this issue, dissect how price-fixing occurs, and propose potential solutions. We will also touch upon the benefits of reform for all consumers, including first-time homebuyers. Stephen Brobeck, Senior Fellow at the Consumer Federation of America and its former Executive Director, has been the leading consumer voice on broker fee reform for over three decades.
Moderator
Sharon Cornelissen
Director of Housing
Consumer Federation of America
Panelists
Stephen Brobeck
Senior Fellow
Consumer Federation of America
2:15pm
Building a Better Foundation for Homeowners of Manufactured Housing: Ongoing Challenges and Policy Solutions
Manufactured housing plays a critical role in providing affordable housing options, but the bargain may come with costs, including weaker consumer protections and more vulnerability to risks. Its homeowners often encounter hurdles in obtaining adequate financing and insurance, which hinders their ability to build home equity and stay in place. Moreover, a significant share of manufactured homes are located in parks where residents rarely own the land, and sometimes rent homes, leaving them uniquely vulnerable to eviction, park closures, and the outfalls of disasters. Our expert panelists will provide an overview of key challenges and policy solutions for homeowners of manufactured homes today. They will discuss the unique vulnerabilities and downsides of chattel loans, the disparities in homeowners’ insurance access, affordability, and quality highlight policy ideas that may improve the financial stability of residents. Overall, we will discuss how manufactured housing and its policy innovations could help promote more equitable and affordable housing opportunities for all.
Moderator
Lisa L. Gill
Health & Medicine Investigative Reporter
Consumer Reports
Panelists
Dave Anderson
Executive Director
National Manufactured Home Owners Association (NMHOA)
Rachel Siegel
Senior Officer, Research
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Arica Young
Associate Director, Underserved Mortgage Markets Coalition
Lincoln Institute
3:30pm
Progress Towards Protecting Kids on the Internet
Young people continue to face a gauntlet of targeted ads, harmful and addictive content, intrusions on privacy, and poorly regulated markets for “adult” products when using the Internet. In response, many policymakers are prioritizing reforms to protect children online. From the Federal Trade Commission’s new rules and enforcement actions under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, to state laws targeting minors’ use of social media, what are the most promising public policies for reducing harms to children online? What more needs to be done?
Moderator
Rebecca Kern
Tech Policy Reporter
POLITICO
Panelists
Haley Hinkle
Policy Counsel
Fairplay
John Morris
Principal, U.S. Internet Policy and Advocacy
Internet Society
Emily Peterson-Cassin
Corporate Power Director
Demand Progress
Benjamin Wiseman
Associate Director, Division of Privacy and Identity Protection
Federal Trade Commission
4:30pm
Adjourn
5:00pm
CFPB Victory Celebration Reception
Thursday, June 6
8:00am
Breakfast Dialogue: How State and Local Consumer Agencies Help Consumers
State and local consumer agencies handle hundreds of thousands of complaints about a wide variety of issues that impact consumers in their daily lives. Hear from CFA’s consumer agency members in various parts of the country about the way their agencies are structured within their states and localities, how they route and resolve complaints, their outreach efforts, and recent trends in complaints.
Moderator
Erin Witte
Director of Consumer Protection
Consumer Federation of America
Panelists
Christina A. D’Aloia
Assistant County Counsel
Director of Consumer Affairs, Counties of Bergen and Passaic
Acting Superintendent of Weights and Measures, County of Bergen
President of County & Municipal Consumer Affairs Agencies (CAMCA)
Demetrice A. Davis
Unit Manager, CIRU and DRU
Virginia Office of the Attorney General
Michelle Reinen
Administrator, Division of Trade and Consumer Protection
Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection
9:00am
Welcome & Keynote Introduction
Speaker
Susan Weinstock
CEO
Consumer Federation of America
9:05am
Keynote Address
Speaker
Representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost
United States House of Representatives
9:20am
Networking Break
9:30am
Homeowners Insurance and Fair Housing: Learning from Housing to Improve Oversight of the Insurance Market
Since the Civil Rights movement, Congress has passed a range of laws to help protect American consumers against discrimination in buying or renting a home. The Fair Housing Act prohibits any housing discrimination on the basis of protected classes, which include race, color, national origin, religion, and sex. The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) requires lenders to publicly disclose data on all loan applications they receive, including the race of applicants. And the Community Reinvestment Act ensures that large banks lend and invest in all communities where they have customers. But even as the availability and affordability of homeowners’ insurance increasingly shape who can afford a home, the insurance industry remains largely untouched by Fair Housing standards and requirements.
This panel brings together experts on fair housing and insurance to discuss what we can learn from anti-discrimination legislation in housing to better assess and regulate the insurance market. We will discuss the ways that fair housing enforcement may be applied to insurance providers. We will also consider the data disclosure standards and community investment expectations that are common to home lending. Overall, by considering lessons from housing policy, we assess how we can reduce unfair discrimination in insurance markets, improve home safety and community resilience, and lower costs, especially in communities of color most impacted by legacies of redlining and growing climate risk.
Moderator
Nichole Nelson
Senior Policy Advisor
National Community Reinvestment Coalition
Panelists
Laura Dobbs
Director of Policy
Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia
Gregory D. Squires
Research Professor and Professor Emeritus
Department of Sociology
George Washington University
Morgan Williams
General Counsel
National Fair Housing Alliance
10:30am
Keynote Address
Speaker
Monica Anderson
Director, Internet and Technology Research
Pew Research Center
11:00am
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: AI’s Impact across Consumer Products and Services
The ubiquity of AI is staggering. Promoters of this technology often refer to the benefits that will be offered to consumers from its usage, like providing greater ability to analyze and make use of vast amounts of information. But detractors have raised concerns about issues such as privacy, and potential bias and inaccuracies within the vast amounts of data that are collected. This panel will explore the pros and cons of AI’s deployment and usage across a variety of consumer products and services.
Moderator
Dorothy Siemon
SVP of Policy Development and Integration
AARP
Panelists
Stacey Gray
Senior Counsel
Future of Privacy Forum
Samir Jain
Vice President of Policy
Center for Democracy and Technology
Laura MacCleery
Senior Director, Public Policy
UnidosUS