Current Events in March 2025

Amazon is suing the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to challenge the commission's order that Amazon is obligated to recall hundreds of thousands of dangerous products.

The lawsuit, filed March 14 in Maryland, where the CPSC is located, argues that Amazon doesn't have a legal obligation to issue recalls or provide refunds for products sold on its marketplace by third-party sellers because it only provides the logistics.

While Amazon sells some of its own products, most items on its marketplace are offered for sale by third parties who pay Amazon to "fulfill" orders by listing them on its site and also by storing and shipping them when they are purchased. 

"The [CPSC] may issue recall orders to the manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of a product, but not to third-party logistics providers who store the product in their warehouses and transport it to customers," Amazon said in the lawsuit.

In January, after an administrative hearing, the CPSC ordered that Amazon was responsible for the recall of more than 400,000 recalled products it distributed, including faulty carbon monoxide detectors, hairdryers without electrocution protection and children’s sleepwear that violated federal flammability standards.

"It is the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s job to hold companies like Amazon accountable for distributing hazardous products.  No company is above the law," said commissioner Richard Trumka after the order was issued in January. "The resolution of this case brings protection to consumers exposed to hazardous products. This is an essential step toward ensuring every consumer, regardless of where or how they shop, can trust the safety of the products they bring into their homes." 

The CPSC has been at odds with Amazon over the recalls since 2021.

The commission's order, effective Jan. 26, required Amazon to provide full refunds to buyers who submit proof of destruction or disposal of the products and to notify buyers of the recalled products because it was a "distributor" under the law.

But Amazon said it isn't required to do so under the law although it said it voluntarily "took prompt and decisive action," including blocking further sales of the products, destroying products in warehouses and contacting each of the 376,009 purchasers.

An 'absurd' argument

Not everyone is buying Amazon's argument.

The court should reject Amazon's lawsuit, which relies primarily on procedural arguments in its attempt to skirt responsibility under product safety law, said William Wallace, director of safety advocacy for the nonprofit publication Consumer Reports, in a statement.

"It’s absurd to suggest that because a company hosts a marketplace online it should be exempt from sensible requirements that help get hazardous products out of people’s homes and prevent them from being sold," Wallace said. The three other commissioners issued similar statements. 

Amazon didn't immediately respond to ConsumerAffairs's request for comment.

Although the CPSC's decision only covers previously recalled products that were identified, it puts pressure on e-commerce platforms to take more responsibility for future recalls, said Courtney Griffin, director of consumer product safety at the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America, to ConsumerAffairs.

“Online marketplaces need more robust systems to vet products before the products make their way into American homes,” Griffin said. “E-commerce giants must ensure consumers are safeguarded adequately in the rapidly expanding online marketplace."

Home prices are rapidly rising in the Midwest, despite the region remaining one of the most affordable places to live.

Three Midwestern metropolitan areas — Milwaukee, Detroit and Cleveland — are among the top five metros where home prices are rising fastest in the U.S., according to a report from real-estate firm Redfin.

The biggest jump was in Milkwaukee, where the median home sales price grew 20% to $330,000 in February from a year ago, followed by nearly 13% in Detroit and 10% in Cleveland, Redfin said.

By comparison, median home prices nationwide grew 3.2% to $425,421, the slowest growth in six months.

The other two metros where home prices rose fastest were Nassau County, New York, by nearly 12%, and San Jose, Calif, which saw a jump of around 11%

Housing bargains galore

The Midwest is one of the most affordable places to buy a home: Detroit has has the lowest median sale price of any metro at $180,000 and Cleveland is the second-most affordable at $217,750.

Home prices are rising in the Midwest because there aren't enough homes for sale, which is encouraging buyers to bid higher, Redfin said.

Three of the five metros where housing supply is falling fastest are in the Midwest.

“Today’s housing market is weird. Some homes are attracting bidding wars like it’s 2020 again, while others are sitting on the market for weeks with no action,” said Desiree Bourgeois, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Detroit, in the report. “I recently saw one house get 10 offers and sell for $50,000 over the asking price, and the buyer waived their appraisal contingency."

"Oftentimes, it’s move-in ready homes in desirable areas that draw competition,” she added.

A federal court has temporarily shut down Click Profit, an online business opportunity scheme that falsely promised consumers massive profits through online sales. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which requested the action, alleges that the company misled consumers into paying tens of thousands of dollars for a fraudulent system powered by artificial intelligence.

According to the FTC complaint, Click Profit lured customers by claiming they could earn “passive income” through online platforms such as Amazon, Walmart, and TikTok. The company also falsely claimed to be affiliated with major brands like Nike and Disney to gain credibility.

“Click Profit misled consumers by falsely promising them guaranteed passive income using cutting-edge AI technology and exclusive brand partnerships,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Their deception caused individual consumers to lose tens of thousands of dollars while Click Profit’s operators enriched themselves.”

Expensive fees and false promises

Click Profit, which also operates under names such as FBALaunch, Automation Industries, and PortfolioLaunch, marketed its program as a “safe, secure, and proven” way to generate wealth. The company promised six-to-eight-figure earnings, even stating that consumers’ stores could be bought by venture capital firms for three to six times their value.

To participate, consumers were required to pay a “management fee” of at least $45,000, plus additional thousands for store inventory. However, most customers never saw a return on their investment, and some were left with credit card debt and unsold products. The complaint cites statistics showing that over one-fifth of Click Profit’s Amazon stores earned no money at all, and another third made less than $2,500 in gross lifetime sales.

The FTC also noted that Amazon blocked, suspended, or terminated about 95% of Click Profit’s stores, making it nearly impossible for customers to generate income. Even when stores were operational, Click Profit allegedly pressured consumers to reinvest any earnings into more inventory, further increasing their financial losses.

Threats and no customer support

Many customers found Click Profit unresponsive after making their payments and only received refunds after filing complaints with outside organizations such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) or law enforcement. In some cases, the company threatened customers with lawsuits for speaking out, citing an unlawful non-disparagement clause in its contracts.

Legal action against operators

The FTC complaint names Click Profit’s co-founders Craig Emslie and Patrick McGeoghean, as well as partners Jason Masri and William Holton, accusing them of violating multiple laws, including the FTC Act, the Business Opportunity Rule, and the Consumer Review Fairness Act.

The FTC is now working to hold the defendants accountable and recover funds for victims who collectively lost millions of dollars.

Insurance brokerage Oberlin Marketing has reportedly leaked hundreds of thousands of Medicare applications by accident.

The more than 320,000 sensitive documents include names, home addresses dates of birth, genders, phone numbers, signatures, health information and financial details that were discovered in October, Cybernews reports.

Health information covers questions on medical conditions, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes.

Financial information includes loan amounts, lender data, co-borrower data and mortgage details.

Risk of scams

The leaked information puts older Medicare patients at risk of scams such as fraud and identity theft, Cybernews researchers said.

“Cybercriminals may exploit this information to access financial services or conduct unauthorized transactions, which could cause significant financial and reputational damage to victims," researchers said. "For Medicare clients, who may be elderly, such fraud could have particularly severe long-term consequences."

Oberlin Marketing didn't immediately respond to ConsumerAffairs's request for comment.

Cybernews also said it has been unsuccessful in contacting the firm about the leaked information.

The leak stems from Oberlin Marketing hosting an unprotected AWS S3 bucket, a cloud storage method that companies use via Amazon Web Services, Cybernews said.

In spite of concerns about what tariffs will do to the price of building materials, the nation’s homebuilders got busy last month. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that privately-owned housing starts in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,501,000. 

This is 11.2% above the revised January estimate of 1,350,000, but is 2.9% below the February 2024 rate of 1,546,000. 

Single-family housing starts in February were at a rate of 1,108,000; this is 11.4% above the revised January figure of 995,000. The February rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 370,000. 

February’s numbers may be evidence that builders pulled forward some plans to get ahead of tariffs. In February, President Trump imposed a 40% tariff on Canadian lumber but later postponed the duty until April 2.

The Census Bureau report contains more evidence of that scenario, revealing a 1.2% decline in building permit applications for future construction.

For consumers hoping to purchase a home, tariffs may contribute to rising prices. The National Association of Homebuilders estimates that tariffs online will raise the price of a new home as much as $10,000.

Existing homes typically cost less than a new one but higher new home prices may pull some existing home prices up with them. Homes that need renovation and updates before going on the market may also carry a slightly higher list price.

Declining homebuilder sentiment

Homebuilders, meanwhile, are growing more pessimistic about the short-term future. Economic uncertainty, the threat of tariffs and elevated construction costs pushed builder sentiment down in March even as builders express hope that a better regulatory environment will lead to an improving business climate.

Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes had a reading of 39 in March, down three points from February and the lowest level in seven months, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released this week.

“Builders continue to face elevated building material costs that are exacerbated by tariff issues, as well as other supply-side challenges that include labor and lot shortages,” NAHB Chairman Buddy Hughes said in a statement.

“At the same time, builders are starting to see relief on the regulatory front to bend the rising cost curve, as demonstrated by the Trump administration's pause of the 2021 IECC building code requirement and move to implement the regulatory definition of ‘waters of the United States’ under the Clean Water Act consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sackett decision.”

“Range anxiety” has been one of the primary reasons consumers have been slow to embrace electric vehicles, but if claims by a Chinese company are true, EVs may have taken a big step forward.

EV firm BYD has introduced its “Super e-Platform” technology, which it said can reach charging speeds so fast that it can produce nearly 250 miles of range in about five minutes. That’s about how long it takes to fill a vehicle’s gasoline tank.

“The ultimate solution is to make charging as quick as refueling a gasoline car,” Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of BYD, said in a press release.

Currently, Tesla’s superchargers offer a charging rate of up to 500 kilowatts, translating into around 168 miles of range in about 15 minutes.

BYD said it plans to build more than 4,000 ultra-fast chargers in China using the new technology but did not say when the project would begin.

Though the company’s claims have not been independently verified, investors appear to take them at face value. BYD’s Hong Kong-listed  stock rallied nearly 6% on the announcement.

You may not associate Oracle Corporation with the likes of TikTok. One is a giant software company that makes industrial-grade database and cloud management systems and the other is, well, it's TikTok, the Chinese government-owned social platform associated with short, quirky videos.

TikTok has been living on borrowed time since it was banned from operating in the U.S. over fears that it posed a threat to national security. After a brief shutdown in January 2025, the app was restored following assurances from President Trump that he would find an American firm to take over the operation.

Speculation turned to the usual suspects — Google, Meta and that ilk — but it is Oracle that has spun into the lead position, according to Politico and other inside-the-Beltway media.  

It is, after all, an enormous undertaking. While its products may be simple to the point of frivolity, TikTok boasts a U.S. fanbase of 170 million people, roughly half the country's population, and distributes a mind-numbing number of videos each day, most of them produced by individuals seeking to become "influencers," an occupation that didn't even exist a decade or so ago.

Only megacompanies need apply

It would take a megacompany like Oracle to successfully mediate and moderate this constant stream of bits, somehow keeping any secret U.S. data from making its way to the Chinese inner sancta.

Currently based in Austin, Texas, after fleeing Redwood City, California, Oracle is headed by Larry Ellison, its co-founder and chairman. Ellison is known for his libertarian-leaning views and has supported both conservative and centrist political figures over the years.

In recent years, he has donated heavily to rightward-leaning PACs and candidates, a shift that may be paying off as Vice President JD Vance and national security adviser Mike Waltz are said to be in serious negotiations with Oracle to play a role in TikTok's future.

Congressional leaders are described as being cautious about the arrangement, fearing that American data could still be filtered and digested by enemy forces in Peking. It was Congress, after all, that voted overwhelmingly to oust TikTok and it may not be ready to back away from that decision.

In its report, Politico said that the deal would essentially require the U.S. government to depend on Oracle to oversee the data of American users and ensure the Chinese government doesn’t have a backdoor to it — a promise many fear would be impossible to keep.

Trump is facing an April 5 deadline to secure a new operator for TikTok. The talks being headed by Vance and Waltz are said to be "advanced," so anxious TikTok fans may not have too much longer to wait for a proposed solution to their fears that their favorite pastime will go away.  

The price of eggs has started to decline, largely due to a significant drop in demand. High prices for the last year and a half have forced many consumers to find alternatives.

A report from the Department of Agriculture found the average price of a dozen eggs is $4.90, down from $8.64 on March 5.

Datasembly, which tracks grocery prices in real-time, reports the egg price decline occurred earlier. It puts the highest price on Feb. 23, with a 1.3% decline by March 2, as illustrated by the graph below.

Source: Datasembly
Egg prices have surged because of a nationwide outbreak of bird flu, which resulted in the deaths of millions of hens. The virus is most severe during the fall and winter months.

The USDA Market Report issued on Friday called underlying trends of egg prices “sharply lower” and consumer demand “light to occasionally moderate.”

The high price of eggs has caused widespread consumer angst because they are a popular source of protein. Dr. Bethany Agusala, assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, says there are other more reasonably-prices foods high in protein.

Protein alternatives

“Eating more meat might seem like the easiest way to step up your protein,” Agusala wrote in a blog post on Newswise. 

“It’s important to remember that the trade-off can be a higher intake of cholesterol and unhealthy fats – and that’s not good for your heart. Mix up your protein sources to get the complete “protein package” – sorry, eating bacon or burgers every day isn’t what we’re talking about here.”

Agusala said consumers should vary their animal proteins with meals based on fish, seafood, and skinless chicken or turkey. She said people often underestimate the amount of protein in plants such as beans, chickpeas, and lentils. 

She added that beans, tofu, and tempeh have more protein than eggs and some meats, and they also provide dietary fiber, which feeds our good gut bacteria, promotes healthy digestion, and can help lower cholesterol.