A company that promised to finance computer purchases for poor consumers has flouted an earlier settlement and court order, the Federal Trade Commission told the U.S. District Court in New York in a filing for contempt charges. BlueHippo told consumers they could buy computers by providing the company a down payment and 13 weekly payments, but most didn’t receive the computers, including those who met its user-unfriendly “undisclosed conditions,” the FTC alleged in the original lawsuit. It got a $3.5 million settlement with the company in April 2008, requiring BlueHippo to stop allegedly deceiving customers, but the company “aggressively” marketed itself the rest of the year, signing up more than 35,000 customers but providing “at most a single financed computer,” the commission said. “Complaints about the company poured into the Better Business Bureau” and BlueHippo didn’t turn in a required compliance document, requiring the FTC to notify the court. After BlueHippo started ordering thousands of computers in April 2009, it failed to order computers for about two in five qualifying customers, and took six months on average to deliver computers to the rest, far more than the advertised three to four week time frame, the commission alleged. The contempt filing also said BlueHippo didn’t disclose important parts of its refund policy, including limitations on how customers who cancelled their order could use store credits for similar items. The commission’s online announcement was paired with a short video featuring Chairman Jon Leibowitz casually explaining the case. Announcements often include links to legal documents but not other forms of media. A spokeswoman told us the commission shoots and posts such videos “from time to time, but we've done a handful.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message reminding the trade about changes to the Importer Security Filing transaction sets that are scheduled to become effective Saturday, November 14, 2009.
The U.S. is out of line with nearly every “high-income” democracy when it comes to privacy regulation and the resources dedicated to protecting privacy, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a report Tuesday recommending the creation of several privacy offices and organizations in the federal government. Not only has the private sector been “extremely aggressive” in collecting data about consumers, but that information in turn is shared in a “dizzying breadth of areas” with federal agencies, the report said. The ACLU recommended a bifurcated approach, with a strengthened Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board -- originally a White House body with no subpoena power that suffered from alleged political tampering (WID July 25/07 p4) -- and a revamped FTC to act as a “privacy watchdog” over businesses.
Previous U.S. trade agreements are the best guide for understanding what’s likely to come out of the Anti- Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) discussions among countries that account for half of world trade, a U.S. Trade Representative official said last week. “Far from speculating” about what could be in the new agreement, as many public-interest groups have done, “I can tell you” what the U.S. is pushing to be included, Stanford McCoy, assistant USTR for intellectual property and innovation, told an American University law school audience.
During the November 4, 2009 Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC) meeting, CBP officials provided an update on 102.
The ITDS Board has submitted its annual report on the International Trade Data System to Congress, as required by the 2006 SAFE Port Act.1 The report includes updates on the status of ITDS implementation and the status of the Automated Commercial Environment within U.S. Customs and Border Protection, among other issues.
The ITDS Board has submitted its annual report on the International Trade Data System to Congress, as required by the 2006 SAFE Port Act.1 The report includes updates on the status of ITDS implementation and the status of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) within U.S. Customs and Border Protection, among other issues.
The International Trade Administration frequently issues notices on antidumping and countervailing duty orders, investigations, etc. which Broker Power considers to be "minor" in importance as they concern actions that occur after an order is issued, neither announce nor cause any changes to an order's duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective period, etc.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message stating that the ACE contact list has been edited to reflect the new email address for the CBP Technology Service Desk. The new email address is CBP.TECHNOLOGY.SERVICE.DESK@CBP.DHS.GOV.(CSMS 09-000345, dated 11/05/09, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17738&page=&srch_argv=09-000345&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby)
CBP has posted a Trade Support Network committee structure matrix that lists all of the TSN committees and subcommittees, with the trade and CBP/government co-chairs and the ACE Support Team business leads. The matrix contains contact information for the business leads. (Matrix, posted 11/03/09, available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/trade/automated/modernization/trade_support_network/tsn_commitee_matrix.ctt/tsn_commitee_matrix.doc)