Consumer Federation of California

Corporate lobbyists are pushing to evade consumer, labor and pollution protections

California’s biggest corporate lobbying organization has called on the governor and the legislature to grant business sweeping immunity from consumer, labor and environmental protections. In a May 26, 2020 letter, the California Chamber of Commerce used COVID-19 as a rationale to urge lawmakers to waive laws and regulations, including:

• Prohibiting consumers who contracted the Coronavirus on the premises of a business from filing a claim of negligence when the business failed to follow public health guidelines
• Stopping the enforcement of a new consumer privacy law
• Eliminating the right of workers to have their day in court when a business cheats them out of their pay
• Postponing a 2021 minimum wage hike that was enacted in law in 2016 and that will help lift millions of hard working Californians out of poverty
• Halting the adoption of new clean air regulations

Millions of Californians have lost income and access to services we need. 150,000 Californians have tested positive for the Coronavirus and 5,000 have succumbed. Average Californians continue to follow the law while we endure this pandemic. The same standards of law should apply to big business.

Consumer Federation of California is part of a coalition that is calling on the governor and lawmakers to reject this corporate demand for a waiver of laws.

Take action. Tell lawmakers: No COVID-19 immunity for business scofflaws
Read the coalition letter