CL
NJ

Consumers League of New Jersey  fights for the right of consumers to safe products, fair contracts and legislation which protects consumers. CLNJ opposes legislation which  legalizes unfair practices such as unlimited interest in payday loans and rent to own deals.

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The Consumers League of New Jersey was founded in 1900,  influenced by the ideas of the Progressive Era. But those times were far from progressive-- children worked in factories, and many of the protections of modern life which we take for granted were nonexistent. The Consumers League supported progressive occupational safety laws in the wake of the tragedy of the  New Jersey radium “girls”-- women workers at a watch factory who were poisoned by radium paint. CLNJ struggled for 35 years before its original agenda: safe food, safe working conditions, prohibitions on child labor, promotion of minimum wage laws, and union protections—started to be enacted into law as the New Deal. The archives of CLNJ’s early history are preserved at Rutgers University Library, New Brunswick.

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The modern Consumers League has been involved in struggles for  fair credit and  mortgage laws, and car safety. CLNJ has opposed industry lobbying to weaken strong consumer protection laws, such as the N.J. Consumer Fraud Act. CNLJ has suggested laws and regulations which were adopted by Congress. The CLNJ lobbied the N.J. Legislature opposing several bills which would have allowed rent to own furniture  stores to charge interest at rates exceeding 100 per cent. 

Consumers League of New Jersey has filed numerous friend of the court briefs in important cases to vindicate consumer rights.  In Perez v. Rent-a-Center, 186 N.J. 188 (2006), the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed with CLNJ that the N.J. Retail Installment Sales Act applied to rent to own contracts of furniture and appliances. The Supreme Court held that such contracts are limited to no more than 30 percent interest, which is the limit of the N.J. criminal usury law. Thousands of consumers benefited with refunds from that case.

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The Consumers League of New Jersey is a nonprofit, section 501(c)(4) civic organization. The CLNJ is nonpartisan, and does not endorse political candidates. CLNJ works with all government officials who support consumer protection. Copyright by Consumers League of New Jersey.