Consumers, workers, tenants, small-business owners and advocates rallied outside City Hall Thursday in support of legislation that would expand New York City’s protections against unfair business practices and give individuals new ways to hold companies accountable.

The rally focused on the POWER Act — the People and Organizations Winning Economic Relief Act — backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and sponsored by Council Member Harvey Epstein, chair of the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection. 

“New York City is a working-class city,” Mamdani said in announcing the bill. “Yet for far too long we've trailed the country when it comes to giving working people the power to take on corporations that violate their rights and try to cheat them.”

The mayor said the measure would allow tenant unions to sue landlords over deceptive trade practices, enable taxi drivers to challenge unconscionable financing terms and give consumers harmed by predatory pricing a way to seek relief from related loans. Nonprofits would also be able to bring claims on behalf of themselves, their members and the public.

Supporters say the measure would address gaps in the city’s existing consumer-protection laws, which generally focus on deceptive conduct and rely heavily on government agencies to enforce violations.

The bill would apply to a broad range of practices, including deed theft, junk fees, worker misclassification, predatory small-business financing, technology companies’ surveillance practices and addictive features on social media platforms.

Federal government rolling back protections for consumers

Lorelei Salas, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers and former commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, said the private right of action would make workers less dependent on the priorities of whichever administration controls City Hall, which is essential as federal policy rolls back protections.

“What it does is that it ensures that the protections are not going to depend on who is in power or the administration at that time,” Salas said in an interview.

She said increasingly sophisticated business practices, including opaque pricing and “dark patterns” designed to steer consumers toward particular choices, can be financially exploitative without involving ‘deceptive’ conduct. Salas pointed to mortgage servicers that charge borrowers fees simply to make their mortgage payments as an example.

Salas said workers outside traditional employment arrangements could also benefit. Uber and DoorDash drivers, for example, are generally classified as independent contractors and can effectively operate as small businesses under the law, leaving them without some of the protections available to traditional employees.

Restaurants and other small businesses can face similar problems when they take out merchant cash advances, which Salas compared to payday loans for businesses. Because those borrowers are treated as commercial entities rather than consumers, she said, they can have fewer avenues to challenge abusive financing terms.

The POWER Act would allow such businesses to bring claims themselves under the city’s expanded consumer-protection framework.

Protecting small businesses and freelancers

Lindsey Vigoda, New York director of Small Business Majority, said small-business owners often turn to merchant cash advances as a quick source of capital, only to become trapped in costly repayment arrangements.

“Too often, the owners of our smallest businesses turn to merchant cash advances as a quick lifeline, and then get stuck in a cycle of debt,” Vigoda said at the rally.

She said a $10,000 advance can result in hundreds of dollars in daily payments for small businesses.

“The POWER Act would finally give New York City small businesses the opportunity to fight back when they are preyed upon by products and companies that are designed to take advantage of them,” Vigoda said.

Andrea Gordillo, president and executive director of the Freelancers Union, said the legislation could similarly provide leverage to independent workers who negotiate with much larger companies.

Gordillo also pointed to artists, writers and other creative workers as workers who could face new challenges as artificial intelligence changes their industries.

“By giving workers the ability to take action against abusive and unfair practices, the POWER Act begins to change that,” Gordillo said.

Council Member Epstein emphasized the importance of strengthening local workplace protections amid federal deregulation.

“As the federal government continues to roll back workplace protections and labor policies, I am proud to be introducing legislation that will expand the power of the Consumer Protection Law and create a swifter path to justice for workers, small businesses and unions alike," he said.

Alongside the POWER Act, lawmakers are advancing two other consumer-protection measures.

The Truth in Pricing Act would simplify the city’s rules governing how businesses display prices while maintaining price transparency requirements. Another proposed amendment would remove a lengthy rulemaking requirement, allowing DCWP to act more quickly against unconscionable business practices.

The POWER Act’s supporters say the legislation aims to change corporate behavior before disputes reach court.

“Ideally the law operates as an incentive for companies to see that that conduct is not going to be tolerated,” Salas said.