。这项拟议的纽约市立法还将允许非营利组织（包括租户工会）直接起诉公司，而不是依赖机构执法。
Mamdani Backs Bill to Let Consumers Sue Over Unfair Business Practices The proposed New York City legislation would also allow nonprofits, including tenants’ unions, to sue companies directly rather than relying on agency enforcement.
一家房地产公司不公地扣留租户的押金。一家银行向一名可能违约的出租车司机发放贷款。在纽约市，租户和司机都几乎没有什么追讨途径。
A real estate company unfairly withholds tenants’ security deposit. A bank issues a loan to a struggling taxi driver who is likely to default. In New York City, both the tenants and the driver have limited recourse.
为将更多权力交到消费者手中，市长佐汗·马姰迪（Zohran Mamdani）预计将于星期四通过曼哈顿民主党议员哈维·爱普斯坦（Harvey Epstein）在市议会提交立法——该法案的发起人也是爱普斯坦——赋予个人“私人诉讼权”，即因不公和滥用的商业行为对公司提起民事诉讼的权利。
In a bid to put more power into consumers’ hands, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expected on Thursday to introduce legislation in the City Council — via Harvey Epstein, a Democratic councilman from Manhattan and the bill’s sponsor — that would give individuals a “private right of action,” or the right to file civil lawsuits against companies on the basis of unfair and abusive business practices.
“我们的政府不会坐视纽约人被欺骗,”马姆达尼在一份声明中说。
“Our administration will not sit back while New Yorkers are taken advantage of,” Mr. Mamdani said in a statement.
该法案名为《权力法案》（Power Act），这是马姆达尼在市议会提交的第一项重大立法。它体现了林娜·卡汗（Lina Khan）的经济民粹主义思想，她是现任市长的顾问，曾担任联邦贸易委员会主任。在2024年，塞缪尔·李文（Samuel Levine）当时担任卡汗的副手，敦促州政府在其消费者保护法的扩展中确立不公行为的私人诉讼权。
The bill, called the Power Act, is Mr. Mamdani’s first major piece of legislation in the City Council. It evokes the economic populism of Lina Khan, an adviser to the mayor who formerly ran the Federal Trade Commission. In 2024, Samuel Levine, then Ms. Khan’s deputy, urged the state to enshrine a private right of action for unfair practices in an expansion of its consumer protection law.
次年，卡汗公开支持这一扩展。（该权利最终在立 legislation 中被删除，原因是行业游说。）如今，作为消费者和劳工保护部的专员，李文正在再次尝试。消费者倡导者称该提案是一次潜在性的变革性扩展，扩展了市 municipal 层面的消费者权利，而行业代表则警告称，该法案可能会将企业陷入无休止的诉讼之中。
Ms. Khan publicly backed the expansion the next year. (That right was ultimately excised from the legislation after industry lobbying.) As the mayor’s commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Mr. Levine is now trying again. Consumer advocates are hailing the proposal as a potentially transformative expansion of consumer rights at the municipal level, while industry representatives are warning that the bill could entangle businesses in endless litigation.